Posted on 11/24/2012 4:56:27 PM PST by haffast
As Tammy Duckworth sees it, her path to Congress began when she awoke in the fall of 2004 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was missing both of her legs and faced the prospect of losing her right arm.
Months of agonizing therapy lay ahead. As the highest-ranking double amputee in the ward, Maj. Duckworth became the go-to person for soldiers complaining of substandard care and bureaucratic ambivalence.
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Veterans' groups say the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is welcome because it comes at a time when the overall number of veterans in Congress is on a steep and steady decline. In the mid-1970s, the vast majority of lawmakers tended to be veterans.
For example, the 95th Congress, which served in 1977-78, had more than 400 veterans among its 535 members, according to the American Legion. The number of veterans next year in Congress will come to just more than 100. Most served during the Vietnam War era. In all, 16 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, not all in a combat role.
"We're losing about a half a million veterans a year in this country," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America. "We are not going to be in a world where a significant plurality of people spent some time in the military, so to have 16 men and women who fought in this current Congress is incredibly significant."
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So is Congress and our nation. Correlation?
I could care less if Tammy Duckworth is a vet or not, or a disabled vet or not. I am also a vet, and a disabled vet.
What I have against Duckworth is she is a left-wing Obama stooge and will be just another rubber stamp for this loser.
I don’t know many veterans who want to put up with the commie bull**** that it takes to get elected. Veterans are smarter than that. They’ve been to ****holes all over the world. Why would they want to go to the big one in Washington, D.C.?
Absolutely, at one time it was almost impossible to be elected if you were not a vet. In my view a politician who is a vet (and I can see why most wont run because vets are leaders not politicians), is the only candidate who demonstrates any skin in the game. Today's politicians of both parties are in it for themselves only irregardless of party. The country has lost its leaders...
Because they know what the price of blood and hell is worth, and they hope that their brothers/sisters in arms since our country’s founding have not died in vain.
Please, not in vain.
Today, the GOP runs draft evaders for president, a man from a family so anti-military, so anti-American, that no man in his line has EVER served us in uniform, in the family’s ENTIRE 170 year history in America.
A draft evading, wartime presidential candidate, who’s own wartime, presidential candidate father, was born in the family’s adopted country of Mexico, because they rejected America.
2012, was an election for the history books, as the weirdest of all presidential elections.
Besides Tammy being a lib, I’m curious which of the folks are Republicans.
I don't know what country they're really for, but it's never been America. IAVA was founded by a Democrat, and therefore, like any Communist organization, its name is a lie. It is NOT primarily composed of veterans, and its only function seems to be to portray veterans into helpless victims who hate their country.
No, here "path to Congress" began in 2008 when she failed for her first bid for the IL State Legislature, then in 2010 for the Senate, and only won in 2012 thanks to the GERRMYANDERING of the entire Illinois Congressional Map thanks to IL House Speaker Mike Madigan, who is now the de-facto IL Governor since he now has an veto proof Illinois House and Senate, and a puppet in the Illinois Senate to do his bidding there.
Tammy Duckworth may have served her country in the military, but this ding-bat and Rod Blagojevich stooge who pissed away $6 million tax-payer dollars here in Illinois doesn't BELONG in the House of Representatives. The ONLY reason she "won" was because of the gerrymandering in this state that literally guaranteed her a win.
It's pathetic living here in Illinois. 4 years and I'm outta here (kids finish high school.)
In stating you are a disabled vet you imply a degree of equivalence between your disability and hers.
She lost two legs, what is your disability?
Women don't belong in the combat zone and RATS don't belong in congress.
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