A gargantuan elephant in the room is that Iraq War vote
where the old "experience" argument, as it related to the "YES" votes, went from meaningless to apocalyptic. Many of us won`t live long enough to see the final results of that disastrous vote, the "Shock and Awe" campaign the hawks were so proud of. Back then, a YES vote, coupled with a made-in-China flag pin, and you were an automatic patriot.
That YES vote has cost this country dearly. Go sit in any waiting room of any VA hospital and the results of that vote will smack you right in the face. It won`t be so easy for you to say how worth it the multiple deployments were, the lives lost or maimed, the money spent, the principles sacrificed. You`ll learn about hopping on one foot, or riding because of no feet, you`ll see young men and women tremble, struggle, cry, fight back anger. You`ll see family members devastated by the physical, emotional and financial costs.
Today`s Washington mood includes familiar taunts about experience, about weakness, about making the sands glow, about carpet bombing. Similar also are the warnings about "them", "those others", folks we need to see as our enemy.
For me, this election is, in part, about helping every last veteran who needs help and insisting that our political "leaders" take immediate and permanent responsibility for each and every life their vote impacted. My dream is that every person in Congress who votes YES for war be required to go to the front lines or send a family member to do so.
I`ll vote judgement over experience any day.
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