Thursday, June 26, 2008

Why We Fight For Our Warriors


Taking a moment away from some of the drier material about laws, lawmaking and lawsuits, let us recall why we must fight for our uniformed family and for their families. An article are Politico today tells the story of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Patrick Campbell:

"On the eve of last month’s Senate vote on Sen. Jim Webb’s GI Bill, Patrick Campbell clicked “send” on one last lobbying e-mail to staffers. Then he broke down and cried.

Campbell, the legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, had started his message by laying out all of the latest developments on Webb’s bill.

In the final paragraphs, the Iraq war veteran shared the news that was foremost in his mind, news that he hadn’t shared with anyone outside his unit.

“Yesterday,” he wrote, “one of my buddies from Iraq committed suicide.”

It should have been a heady week for Campbell, a week in which the former staffer for Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and other Democrats shared a rally stage with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-­Calif.), saw the Senate vote overwhelmingly in favor of Webb’s bill and graduated from law school at Catholic University.

But Campbell and the other soldiers in his unit had recently received notice that they’d be headed back to Iraq early next year...."

...Continued on Politico at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11315.html

And a shout-out to http://www.iava.org. I'll get back to the legal stuff tomorrow.

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