NPR reports that more than 1,500 sailors, their families, and their pets were evacuated from Bahrain after the Trump administration started a war against Iran without making any plans for what might happen, like missiles hitting US bases.
“They had to leave quickly, and many only took a backpack with their clothes,” said Derrick Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk, VA. “They literally told them, ‘Get what you can in the backpack.
You’ve got to go.’” “The three we met first came with no uniforms, nothing. They just had the clothes on their backs and what they could fit in that backpack.”
Surprisingly, the Trump administration didn’t prepare for their return either, so the local community had to organize donation drives for basic items like hygiene products.
“The base was asking for donations of toiletries and other things for the sailors coming back, because they were coming back with nothing,” said one person.
The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society has given out $1 million to about 2,000 sailors and their families since the evacuations started, said the group’s chief operations officer, Dawn Cutler, a retired rear admiral.
“I saw one woman — she had a 2-week-old baby, a 2-year-old, and a dog in a crate and a suitcase.
She was just at the moment, you know, trying to get out of danger and get to a safe place. Now we’re at the point where families are back and they’re starting to ask the question: ‘Well, what’s next? Will we go back?'” said Dawn Cutler of the NMCRS.
NPR reports that “the money raised is mainly to pay for essentials and to provide bridge loans so families can cover basic living expenses while they wait for the government to reimburse them, which can take months.”
That’s the Trump administration in a nutshell.
Put Americans in danger without reason, disrupt their lives because they didn’t prepare at all, and then do nothing for them when they come back.
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