Imagine for a moment what would happen if an Australian politician had said about our veterans what Donald Trump had said about US veterans. To borrow an American colloquial political comment – they wouldn’t get elected as a dog-catcher.

Trump’s most astonishing comment about military service came when he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the widow of the late Sheldon Adelson, Miriam. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor”, he said.

As far as anyone can discover the main reason for her qualification were the millions of dollars of donations the couple tipped into Trump’s first campaign.

He then went on to say: “But (the) civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone (who) gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they have been hit by bullets so they’re dead. She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful women, and they are rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she got it through committees and everything else.”  Words in brackets added to the transcript to make some sense of a typical meandering Trump sentence.

For the Australians who may not know, The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United State Armed Forces’ highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valour –  not just soldiers. Incidentally, its name is not the Congressional Medal of Honor as Trump persists in calling it, but simply the Medal of Honor.

Trump has referred to service members killed in combat as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars commander, Al Lipphardt, said in response to his latest comments along these lines: “On Thursday, former President Trump spoke at an event where he made flippant remarks about the Medal of Honor and the heroes who have received it. These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterises the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.”

“When a candidate to serve as our military’s commander-in-chief so brazenly dismissed the valor and reverence symbolised by the Medal of Honor and those who have earned it, I must question whether they would discharge their responsibilities to our men and women in uniform with the seriousness and discernment necessary for such a powerful position,” he said.

Trump has form as he also mocked the late Senator John McCain’s torture in a Vietnam POW camp. He also said he didn’t think people who got captured were heroes. Although it is difficult to see how anyone who was shot down over enemy territory in Vietnam was going to avoid being captured. And, of course, the only experience of some sort of torture Trump has ever experienced was probably when he inflicted it on some his rape victims.

Trumps’ VP choice, J.D.Vance, weighed in to help saying: “I don’t think him complimenting and saying some nice things about a person he liked ….. is in any way denigrating those who received military honors. It is a totally reasonable thing to do.”

Former Republican National Chairman, Michael Steele, was enraged and said: “This whole episode just sucks hard. You know it strikes at the core of what we value as a country….To have a President,, now former President, denigrate that, but more importantly to have his running mate, who himself is  member of that service, who wore that uniform, who stood next to those men and women who served with him, many of whom he knows and would go off and be harmed or killed, to stand there and give credence to the excuse-making on behalf of Donald Trump. Shame on you J.D. You dishonour the uniform that you wore…we are shocked by it because that is just not who we are as a nation.”

It should also be remembered that Trump dodged the draft and avoided being sent to Vietnam. In 1968 Trump was 6 feet 2, played football, tennis and squash; and was just taking up golf. Apparently the only medical issue he ever had was a routine appendectomy when he was 10. But after he graduated from college in spring 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. The diagnosis got him a medical deferment exempting him from service in Vietnam and subsequently got five more for ‘education’ during the war.

His father, Fred, had organised a friendly doctor to provide a medical reason for a deferral and Trump has freely said that he had no intention of going to Vietnam. Parties and women in New York were clearly more important than sinking into Vietnamese mud.

In an Australian context you can’t blame anyone who refused to go to Vietnam on principle. And you have to understand anyone who worked on various deferment ploys. But if they then turned around and openly advocated wars, while mocking those who served in them, they would be wasting their time pursuing a political career.

Australia does have a dangerous tendency to slide into Anzackery – largely driven by politicians rather than veterans.

We have proportionally fewer veterans, though, admittedly far too many, living on streets or suffering mental and physical problems in the US.

Moreover, we tend to honour veterans less for their service and more for the political benefits relentless commemorations bring. Indeed, from John Howard onwards late 20^th century politicians have tried to make Anzac commemoration into a sort of religion which supposedly defines us as a nation.

Nevertheless, however distasteful much of this is, there is no doubt that no Australian politician would say the things Trump has. Peter Dutton often channels him – probably proudly – but if he channelled sentiments similar to those of Trump on veterans the Opposition would be quickly looking for a new Leader.