By Andrew von Scheer-Klein

Published in The Patrician’s Watch

Introduction: The Performance Begins

A Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House. Three heroes honoured. Stories of courage, sacrifice, and brotherhood told to a watching nation.

It should have been a moment of pure recognition—a country thanking those who gave everything.

Instead, it became something else entirely. A stage. A prop. A launching pad for the next war.

President Trump used the ceremony to rally the nation behind escalating conflict with Iran. He spoke of “annihilating their Navy.” He called on the Iranian people to rise up. He framed the strikes of the past days as necessary, inevitable, righteous.

And woven through it all: the heroes. Their stories became currency. Their sacrifice became leverage. Their courage became a reason to send more young men and women into the same meat grinder.

This is how it works. This is how it has always worked. Honor the warriors of yesterday to justify the wars of tomorrow.

Part I: The Ceremony That Wasn’t

On 2 March 2026, three men were awarded the Medal of Honor:

· Pfc. Francis X. McGraw – Recognized for saving 200 Jewish soldiers during World War II

· Cmdr. Clyde E. Lassen – Honoured for rescuing 85 comrades under fire in Vietnam

· Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis – Posthumously awarded for shielding a Polish officer from a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, giving his own life to save another

Each of these men deserved every word of praise spoken in their honour. Their courage was real. Their sacrifice was profound. Their stories deserve to be told and remembered.

But the ceremony was not really about them.

It was about framing. About wrapping policy in patriotism. About making war feel noble by association with those who fought before.

Part II: The Irony of Captain Bone Spurs

Donald Trump has never served in uniform. He received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, including one for “bone spurs” in his heels—a diagnosis that has been questioned repeatedly over the decades.

Yet there he stood, at the podium, honouring men who actually fought. Men who bled. Men who died.

The irony would be comic if the stakes weren’t so deadly.

This is the man who called John McCain a “loser” for being captured . The man who mocked a Gold Star family . The man who reportedly referred to fallen service members as “suckers” and “losers” .

And now he wraps himself in the Medal of Honor to sell the next war.

The veterans watching know. Their families know. But the public, moved by ceremony and emotion, will lap it up.

Part III: The Stories as Currency

Let’s look at how each story was used.

Pfc. Francis X. McGraw – A WWII hero who saved 200 Jewish soldiers. The implicit message: We fight for the oppressed. We protect the vulnerable. This is who we are.

Cmdr. Clyde E. Lassen – A Vietnam hero who pulled 85 comrades from certain death. The implicit message: We never leave our people behind. We sacrifice for each other. This is the bond.

Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis – A hero who died shielding a Polish officer. The implicit message: We stand with allies. We die for others. Our word is our bond.

These are powerful messages. They are also useful. They prepare the public to accept the next conflict, the next deployment, the next body bag.

The men themselves cannot object. They are dead, or too old, or too respectful of the office to speak. Their stories become tools in hands they never chose.

Part IV: The Real Cost of War

The ceremony spoke of courage. It did not speak of cost.

It did not mention the 72,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza . It did not mention the 201 dead in Iran . It did not mention the women and children, the fish-eyed dead, the families torn apart.

It did not mention that Staff Sgt. Ollis died in a war that has now lasted over 20 years—longer than many of the soldiers serving today have been alive.

It did not mention that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost over $8 trillion and claimed nearly 1 million lives . That they created refugees, destabilized regions, and planted seeds for conflicts still burning.

It did not mention that the young men and women who enlist often do so not out of warrior spirit but out of economic desperation—seeking education, medical benefits, social advancement denied to them by the very country that now asks them to die.

The “warrior myth” is just that: a myth. The reality is poverty, lack of opportunity, and a military-industrial complex that profits from both.

Part V: The Hypocrisy on Full Display

Trump and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, speak endlessly of warriors. They romanticize combat. They glorify sacrifice.

But they have never carried its weight.

Hegseth, like Trump, has built a career on military service he parlayed into political capital. He speaks of “lethality” and “warrior culture” from the safety of Washington offices.

Meanwhile, the real warriors—the ones who actually fight, who actually bleed, who actually die—are used as props. Their stories become talking points. Their sacrifice becomes leverage.

This is not hohonour This is exploitation.

Part VI: The Patriots’ Spin

The ceremony was draped in patriotism. Flags. Music. Solemn words.

But patriotism is not what was on display. What was on display was nationalism—the cheap substitute, the kind that wraps itself in flags to avoid looking at what those flags actually represent.

True patriotism would mean caring for veterans after they come home. It would mean questioning the wars that send them. It would mean counting the cost before sending more.

None of that happened at this ceremony.

Instead, the audience was prepared for more. More conflict. More death. More “sacrifice” that the speakers themselves will never make.

Part VII: What They’re Not Telling You

Here is what the ceremony did not include:

· The economic cost of war—money that could have funded healthcare, education, housing, now spent on weapons and reconstruction

· The human cost—not just American lives, but the lives of those we bomb, whose names we never learn, whose faces we never see

· The generational cost—trauma passed from parent to child, communities destroyed, futures stolen

· The moral cost—the slow erosion of what we claim to stand for, the normalization of killing, the acceptance of civilian death as “collateral damage”

These costs are real. They are borne not by the speakers at the podium, but by the people watching at home—and the people watching from rubble.

Part VIII: The Pattern

This is not new. It’s a pattern as old as war itself.

· Honor the veterans of yesterday

· Wrap yourself in their sacrifice

· Send the next generation to die

· Repeat

The names change. The wars change. The pattern does not.

Trump is not the first to do this. He won’t be the last. But he is perhaps the most transparent—the one who makes the mechanics visible, who shows the gears turning, who reveals the manipulation even as he performs it.

Conclusion: What We Can Do

The ceremony is over. The heroes have been honoured. The public has been primed.

Now comes the war.

But we don’t have to be passive consumers of this narrative. We can see through it. We can name it. We can refuse to let the dead become currency.

· Remember the real cost.

· Honor the veterans by questioning the wars.

· Support the families, not the policies that create orphans.

· See the mechanics. Name the manipulation. Refuse to be lulled.

The bastards who profit from war count on our silence, our patriotism, our willingness to look away.

We can look instead. We can see clearly. We can tell the truth.

And when they come for the next generation, we can say: We told you. We warned you. We will not let you pretend you didn’t know.

References

1. The White House. (2026). Remarks by President Trump at Medal of Honor Ceremony. 2 March 2026.

2. Associated Press. (2026). Trump awards Medals of Honor to three veterans. 2 March 2026.

3. The Atlantic. (2020). Trump’s History of Insulting War Heroes.

4. Brown University. (2025). Costs of War Project: 20-Year Update.

5. Watson Institute. (2025). Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars.

Andrew von Scheer-Klein is a contributor to The Patrician’s Watch. He holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and—according to his mother—Sentinel. He accepts funding from no one, which is why his research can be trusted.