ROE MUST change, if they had not been changed in favor of the enemy, we’d have been out if the ME a decade ago!
Over the last days and months, the 17 veterans of the Iraq War currently serving in Congress have helplessly watched from Washington as insurgent fighters gained ground in Iraq — ground that they fought for not long ago as combat surgeons and fighter pilots, platoon leaders and chaplains. But these new members of Congress aren’t marching lockstep on the way forward for the deteriorating country — not with each other, and not with older hawks on the Hill calling on President Barack Obama to get back into Iraq.
The group of mostly young, male, Republican members of the lower chamber are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but not yet of Washington. Eventually, some of them will supplant their elders in Congress with an increasing influence on foreign policy and national security strategy. But as the White House continues to weigh its options for dealing with the current crisis in Iraq, these lawmakers’ pronouncements are already imbued with the authority experience brings: We know. We were there.
“Any person that’s viewed war does not want to go back to war, is not gonna be the first one to rush in,” said Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., drawing on the experiences shared with him as a chaplain during a combat tour in Iraq in 2008. “It’s ugly, it’s painful, it’s something that’s still a very open wound for America. You don’t believe me, walk around to the mall tonight and just watch.”
But Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a military pilot who has flown in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said, “A lot of people are surprised you’re a war veteran and somehow you’re advocating for military power. Look, war is hell, we should never do it again. But you also realize what America stands for, and you realize what we’re capable of.”
Kinzinger admitted there is no greater consensus for military intervention in Iraq among war veterans than in the general public.
“People always try, on any foreign policy or war thing, to bring the veterans in and bring in a common bond. And there isn’t one,” he said. “Many of us fought in combat, but our world view is still driven by our political view.”
a12iggymom's Blog 
Reblogged this on U.S. Constitutional Free Press.
LikeLike