Webb to Romney: A ‘thanks’ would have been nice

[pinboy3niner]

Posted by Rachel Weiner on September 27, 2012 at 12:54 pm

Introducing President Obama in Virginia Beach, retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), condemned Mitt Romney for failing to mention veterans or the military in his GOP convention speech.

The omission was all the more damning, Webb suggested, because Romney is of an age where he might have served in Vietnam but did not.

“If nothing else, at least mention some word of thanks and respect when a presidential candidate who is their generational peer makes a speech,” said Webb, a former Navy secretary and decorated Marine who served in Vietnam. Romney was exempted from the draft, first as a student and then as a missionary.

...


“As Jim Webb so eloquently stated, when our troops take off their uniforms, we will serve them as well as they served us,” Obama said when he took the stage. “No one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads when they come home.”

The program, which drew wild cheers from the military-friendly audience, also presented a tacit contrast with Romney, who has done much less than Obama to reach out to veterans and who has criticized the president’s withdrawal plans in Iraq and Afghanistan.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/27/jim-webb-rebukes-mitt-romney-on-veterans/?hpid=z2

[cr8tvlde]

1. And then one of his bosom buddies block the Vets cost-of-living raise

There is no shame among thieves. Off with their political heads !!!

[Cha]

2. Good Job calling out psychopath, mitt romney,

Jim Webb. I didn't like some votes he made in the Senate but this is good.

[douglas9]

3. Webb drops the hammer on Romney

Jim Webb’s departures from party orthodoxy are frequent. As recently as last November, the retiring Virginia Democratic senator was reluctant to commit to campaigning for President Barack Obama.

So Webb’s bladework today on Mitt Romney was as unexpected as it was memorable.

From Webb’s introductory remarks before Obama’s Virginia Beach appearance:

Governor Romney and I are about the same age. Like millions of others in our generation, we came to adulthood facing the harsh realities of the Vietnam War. 2.7 million in our age group went to Vietnam, a war which eventually took the lives of 58,000 young Americans and cost another 300,000 wounded. The Marine Corps lost 100,000 killed or wounded in that war. During the year I was in Vietnam, 1969, our country lost twice as many dead as we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the past 10 years of war. 1968 was worse. 1967 was about the same. Not a day goes by when I do not think about the young Marines I was privileged to lead.

This was a time of conscription, where every American male was eligible to be drafted. People made choices about how to deal with the draft, and about military service. I have never envied or resented any of the choices that were made as long as they were done within the law. But those among us who stepped forward to face the harsh unknowns and the lifelong changes that can come from combat did so with the belief that their service would be honored, and that our leaders would, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, care for those who had borne the battle, and for their widows and their children.

Those young Marines that I led have grown older now. They’ve lived lives of courage, both in combat and after their return, where many of them were derided by their own peers for having served. That was a long time ago. They are not bitter. They know what they did. But in receiving veterans’ benefits, they are not takers. They were givers, in the ultimate sense of that word. There is a saying among war veterans: “All gave some, some gave all.” This is not a culture of dependency. It is a part of a long tradition that gave this country its freedom and independence. They paid, some with their lives, some through wounds and disabilities, some through their emotional scars, some through the lost opportunities and delayed entry into civilian careers which had already begun for many of their peers who did not serve.

con't

http://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/09/webb-drops-the-hammer-on-romney-136858.html

[era veteran]

4. Mitt had 5 years of deferments

During that period he missed we lost more than 50,000 dead. Mitt is good with numbers, he missed the killing years and then it was over.
The Republicans always screw over veterans.