veterans

As we saw in last weekend's Saddleback Forum, being able to compare and contrast what the candidates are saying is not only infinitely useful, it's pretty compelling. The occasion to whip out the measuring stick hit us again this week with McCain and Obama both addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.

Appropriate to the audience, Obama and McCain hit on Iraq and their plans as commander in chief.

Pundits have gone nuts parsing and analyzing the fact that Obama mentioned Biden (Veeeepstaaakes) in his address while hammering that McCain is focusing on the wrong fight — and that McCain leveled firm charges against Obama's national security credentials, pointing out his shifting positions on the surge and calling him out for voting against funding for the troops.

Despite all this, I can't help but be a rhetorical purist. What did they say, and how does it compare? Here's how they talked about success in Iraq.

Are you a purist? To see what they said and links to the full text of the speeches, read more

Eight members of Veterans for Freedom, a political action committee, are currently in Iraq on a taxpayer-funded mission. The group has ties to John McCain's campaign and has produced ads critical of Barack Obama.

On the "Back to Iraq" trip, these veterans of the Iraq War are returning to the streets they patrolled, but this time with the goal of observing and reporting progress that has been made, along with work still left to be finished. With the help of the US military, they have been embedded with the troops.

Skeptics say that the group, which backs any candidate that "supports victory," should not have the American public finance the trip — they argue that the purpose of the mission is to selectively gather "facts" supportive of John McCain's position on the war. Does this sound to you like a campaign tactic or valuable citizen reporting?

Not just because my own personal WW II vet will be 90 on Monday, I've been thinking about not only the people, but the history that's leaving us at a rate of over 1,000 a day. They're not Spring chickens anymore, and that's what makes these stories of WW II vets in the news so striking.

When a young man knocked on the door of WW II vet Art Iwasaki looking for school donations, Iwasaki had no idea he'd wind up 15 minutes later with a gun pointed to his face. The young man was back and demanding money. Iwasaki feigned deafness pointing to his hearing aids and told the kid to write it down. Stalling until he could shout to get his daughter's attention (who was upstairs working) the robber was caught off guard. While the robber's attention was on Iwasaki's daughter, Iwasaki picked up his bamboo cane and brandished it at the robber, pushing him out the door.

The bravery is nothing new for this vet: he served in the most decorated Army infantry group in US history.

Unfortunately those decorations can also be prime targets for thieves. To see how, and the powerful kindness of strangers, read more

In honor of Memorial Day, I wanted to share information about this heartwarming program with you! To assist the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Puppies Behind Bars has launched the Dog Tags plan to match disabled soldiers with specially trained Labrador Retrievers or Golden Retrievers to assist them in their daily lives, performing tasks ranging from opening the door to helping to pick up dropped items. These dogs not only are new life companions for the veterans, but the fully-trained service dogs would run each person around $30,000 if left to pay for it on their own.

In Colorado this weekend, hundreds of high school seniors turned their tassels and graduated — one of them had just been waiting for it longer than the others. Forty-two years longer, to be exact. Dennis Collins, now 60, walked across the stage on Saturday and collected the diploma that he'd sacrificed by heading off to Vietnam in 1966.

Collins says of his decision to go, “Vietnam was becoming a big issue. It was just kind of what you did. I was raised to believe you served your country and whenever you got out, you served your community.” He continues, “In Vietnam, you didn’t like it or not like it. It was something you did because it was something your country said to do. … It was my duty to do it, and I did it.” To see how Collins was able to graduate and more scenes from this Memorial Day, read more

The New York Times reported on research this weekend showing links between at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and violent crimes. Using reports from local newspapers, court records, and interviews, the Times uncovered case after case where military personnel returned from war showing symptoms of combat trauma and were later charged with murder.

An inquiry into homicides involving all active-duty military, as well as new veterans, in the six years surrounding the present wartime period showed an 89 percent increase in incidents to 349 instances, up from 184. About 75 percent of these cases involved Iraq- and Afghanistan-war veterans.

Brockton D. Hunter, a criminal-defense lawyer in Minneapolis, was quoted in the piece as saying,

To truly support our troops, we need to apply our lessons from history and newfound knowledge about PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) to help the most troubled of our returning veterans. To deny the frequent connection between combat trauma and subsequent criminal behavior is to deny one of the direct societal costs of war and to discard another generation of troubled heroes.

The Times piece is part of a special series entitled, War Torn.