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.
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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.
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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.
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One might assume those who'd fought for their country would be an important and respected voting population. One might also assume that the Department of Veterans Affairs would be in favor making that happen, much easier. One would be el wrongo.
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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.
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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.
While it was officially Levittown's 60th birthday on October 12th, I wanted to wait until Veterans Day to talk about this historic suburb. Sixty years (and one month) ago, the nation's first postwar living community — or suburb — was established in Nassau County, New York, in what is now known as Levittown, Long Island.
Built by the firm of Levitt & Sons, Incorporated, between 1947 and 1951, Levittown provided affordable housing for World War II veterans and their families, and a home could be bought for as little as $7,000.
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