Washington:

The US Army on Thursday took aim at Donald Trump’s staff over a visit by the Republican presidential candidate to the country’s most hallowed resting place for its war dead.

The incident has mushroomed into an uncharacteristically public dispute between the military and a former US commander in chief, with Trump lashing out and accusing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of having “killed” American soldiers through “gross incompetence” in Afghanistan.

Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington with family members of some of the 13 service members killed in a 2021 bombing during the last hours of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

His campaign posted photos from the visit, including one showing him giving a thumbs-up gesture while standing with relatives at the grave of one of the US Marines killed.

The Army said an Arlington employee was “abruptly pushed aside” when she sought to ensure a law prohibiting political activity on cemetery grounds was followed.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the (Arlington National Cemetery) employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement.

Going on the offensive, Trump’s campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita has described the employee as a “despicable individual,” while campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said she was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

Doubling down, LaCivita later reposted video of Trump’s presence at Arlington and said he hoped it would “trigger the hacks” at the US Army secretary’s office.

Trump has made criticism of Biden’s handling of the retreat from Afghanistan a key note of his campaign ahead of November’s election.

The US withdrawal was made as part of a peace deal signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban.

At a Thursday rally in Michigan, Trump defended his gravesite visit and savaged Biden and Harris, his 2024 White House rival, over Afghanistan.

“They asked me to go yesterday to Arlington and I did,” Trump said of the families, adding that “bad people” accused him of inappropriate political activity.

“Joe Biden killed their children, by incompetence… Kamala killed their children — just as though they had a gun in their hand — by gross incompetence,” Trump told supporters.

“Not one general or incompetent bureaucrat was fired,” over the deadly pullout, he added. “And then they accuse me of having a picture taken at the tombstone with the family.”  

Uproar over the incident at Arlington on Monday is the latest controversy in Trump’s troubled relationship with the military.

While often touting his support for the armed forces, he privately mocked the war dead while he was president and did not want to be seen near military amputees, according to his former chief of staff.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The US Army has charged a military doctor with sexual misconduct, a spokeswoman said Thursday, in a major case that reportedly involves more than 20 alleged victims.

Major Michael Stockin — an anesthesiologist who joined the Army in May 2013 and is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the state of Washington — was charged earlier this week, Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Bocanegra said.

“The general nature of the charges include abusive sexual contact and indecent viewing in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” she said.

“The charges will now be reviewed for legal sufficiency by an independent officer at a pretrial preliminary hearing pursuant to federal law.”

The Washington Post, which first reported that Stockin was under investigation, said this could be one of the military’s largest sexual abuse cases in years, and that it involves at least 23 alleged victims.

Stockin’s attorney Robert Capovilla told the Post, prior to charges being filed, “I would simply ask that everyone simply reserve judgment until he has the right to be heard, until his defense team is given all of the evidence, and until due process plays its course.”

According to Pentagon data, there were 8,942 reports of sexual assault involving military personnel as either perpetrators or victims in fiscal year 2022 — an increase of one percent from the year before.

Last month, President Joe Biden signed an order changing the way the US military investigates sexual assault cases by shifting power away from unit commanders to independent prosecutors.

Among the powers that now fall exclusively to prosecutors is deciding whether or not to lodge charges of serious crimes.

The White House called it the “most significant transformation of the military justice system” since it was established in 1950, ensuring that cases will be “fully independent” from the chain of command.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)