Thanks Chris and my Father - Two Tours of Duty - Memorial Day

I received an email from my cousin Chris Edstrom. Chris has done two tours of duty in Iraq as well as a tour in Afghanistan. I was at my sisters house yesterday and my father was there. My father did two tours of duty in Vietnam and is the world record holder for number of years with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).

Chris and my father are just two of the many heroes we should have thanked yesterday for their service to our country.

As someone who lives in Northern Virginia, I am very proud of the GI Bill of Rights that Senator Webb proposed. It is absolutely inconceivable to me why ANYONE would be against this Bill.

As The New York Times wrote on the 50th anniversary of the G.I. bill: “Few laws have done so much for so many.”

“These veterans were able to get a first-class future,” Senator Webb told me in an interview. “But not only that. For every dollar that was spent on the World War II G.I. bill, seven dollars came back in the form of tax remunerations from those who received benefits.”

Senator Lautenberg went to Columbia on the G.I. bill, and Senator Warner to Washington and Lee University and then to law school.

The Bush administration opposes the new G.I. bill primarily on the grounds that it is too generous, would be difficult to administer and would adversely affect retention.

This is bogus. The estimated $2.5 billion to $4 billion annual cost of the Webb proposal is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions being spent on the wars we’re asking service members to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s important to keep in mind is that the money that goes to bolstering the education of returning veterans is an investment, in both the lives of the veterans themselves and the future of the nation."

I think back to when I was with Joy W. and my wife listening to Oliver Stone present at a small College in California. Oliver Stone was asked, "why did the Vietnam war go on for so long?" Mr. Stone replied, "Do you really NOT know? - that is EASY, because Senators and Congressman's sons were NOT dying."

Why is it that it is always the politicians who were never in battle are ALWAYS the ones who are quickest to send our sons and daughters in harms way, but then have the complete LACK OF CHARACTER AND LACK OF COURAGE to take care of them when they come home?

Thank you Senator Webb for you LEADERSHIP!