Why are Iraq vets returning to run as Democrats?

[gee double you bee]

I'm willing to be cynical enough to believe there's some smart politics going on behind the scenes, courting various interested vets and such, but that wouldn't explain why republicans wouldn't be doing the same.

So my question is why is this happening? There's the obvious, no duh reason, they've seen up close the folly of this admin, but is that all it is? because again, wouldn't republicans be able to find ONE Iraq vet to run?

I'm certainly not complaining, believe me, it just seems interesting and I was wondering what you guys thought about it.

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. some of us have brains...

if I had money I would run myself.

[mongo]

4. I really doesn't take that much money to get involved locally

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Because the type of people who serve in the military are typically not the

monied corporate folks who become our politicians.

This is actually true of both parties to a degree, but you're not going to find a Katherine Harris or Pirro type wearing camo in Iraq.

[moondust]

8. Agree.

National politicians of both parties have too much personal wealth and too little at stake personally in the fights they fight and the votes they cast. It helps to create spineless Dems and arrogant chickenhawk Pukes.

[babylonsister]

3. Maybe they became sick of seeing dead and/or severely

injured Americans and Iraqis being damaged because of an illicit war without end. I hope they want to try to help make our world better. I think honesty is smart politics and that's something that's been in short supply.

[mongo]

5. Lots of people join the military

as a way of funding their education, to get out of their small town, etc.

Being in the military doesn't make you a freeper.

[DURHAM D]

6. I heard someone on tv say the other day that the Dems and

repugs are actually in Iraq recruiting candidates. Don't know if its true but I heard it. At the same time I thought great, the repugs have more money for that sort of thing and can stay their longer. Also, they can just buy candidates by putting them on someone's (corporate) payroll immediately thus allowing their candidates to begin campaigning immediately upon returning home instead of working.

[Jacobin]

7. Returning vets were the backbone of political resistance

to the Viet Nam debacle.

Nothing like being up close and personal and seeing what idiotic policy can do to people.

Its how Kerry got his start

[Stinky The Clown]

9. According to this, 8 are running so far .... and 7 are Dems!

http://www.jregrassroots.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t15770.html

[cascadiance]

10. Iraqi vets are seeing the real world outside of the U.S.!

I was fortunate when growing up to spend time overseas and be around other cultures (Asian and Middle East). Though there were negative aspects of living life as a diplomatic brat when a kid, I still value it immensely as helping me grow and appreciate what our forefathers gave us here by comparison.

I've said to a number of people the one big difference between us and the rest of the world right now is that we are one of the few countries left on the planet where we have two generations of people where we haven't had to deal with internal conflict/revolution in our country in our lifetimes. Every other nation has had a "difficult period" either in people of today's lives or in their parents' with wars, etc. They have direct knowledge of the pain of this experience from the past or the present and what value it is to have freedom and represenation. In short, they appreciate more the value of Democracy, since they or their parents have seen the consequences of not having it.

This gives them an appreciation of knowing when their country's government is in a threatened state, and when the time exists where they need to be willing to potentially throw away the security of what they've been used to if they see a greater threat coming down the pike. The Ukranians saw this and were willing to risk violence to themselves to protest what they saw as a flawed election. We were too scared to protest and react to in the same extremes a similarly flawed election of ours the last two times.

Our recent history of having peace and harmony has been a blessing to us, but it's also a curse when things go wrong. We are afraid of potentially taking arms against our neighbors if increased conflict might lead to that. We're afraid to press the limits there and will pull back before we go too far in this direction. We might have done so with folks from the 20's, etc. that remember the depression and the violent strikes of earlier times. But those people are disappearing and not significant in strength here any more.

The real hope for us now is to reawaken the Vietnam generation and the newer vets from Iraq who have seen violence and know it's extent and can appreciate the costs of what a potential conflict might be and can weigh that against what they perceive the threat to our democracy is. They in short have "been through it", where the rest of has haven't. That's why the longer this conflict lasts, the more we involve involuntary combatants through things like the draft and national guard enlistments, and the more kids get killed, this will be the biggest enemy that Bush and the neocon chickenhawks have. They won't feel they have as much to lose in challenging these neocons when the neocons push us further into the brink of their fascist world view.

That's why I strongly support both these guys coming home to represent us and folks like Colleen Rowley who are running for congress with a close hand knowledge of what is going on. You get the right people and they will know when to make tough choices if these Bushbots get out of control.