America's Troops and Veterans lost today with the withdrawal of Iraq War Veteran Paul Hackett from his Senate race in Ohio. Hackett claims, and there is plenty of evidence to back this up, that he was pressured to withdraw by the Democratic Party establishment. Regardless of the politics behind-the-scenes, the loss of Paul Hackett's voice in the national dialogue is a loss for our military, for the Troops in harms' way, and for the nation as a whole.
Yet again, the Washington political machine has shown its inability to handle fresh perspective and bold challenges to the status quo. Would Paul Hackett have played along with the foot-dragging and bureaucracy that is viewed as business-as-usual by the Capitol Hill old guard? Would he have played nicely when it came down to party loyalty, or would he have called it as he saw it, regardless of politics? On these issues, and many others, Paul Hackett was a novice, unaccustomed to the quiet backroom handshakes that too often characterize business inside the Beltway. So he got the boot, and now he says he isn't planning a return to politics anytime soon, if ever.
But this isn't about Paul Hackett. It's about the credibility that he brought to the national conversation on the war in Iraq. The issue is debated on the Senate floor by men and women who have likely never experienced war, let alone this war. It baffles me that we cannot, as a nation, agree that it is a worthwhile endeavor to send at least one person with firsthand experience to debate (and vote on) the future course of our military's engagement in Iraq.
Today, the Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are a jump-ball. Members of the military past and present were once regarded as the Republican party's most reliable voting block. That is no longer the case, as evidenced by the fact that eight of the nine Iraq War Veterans now running for office are running as Democrats, if only because they are opposed to the status quo. But this isn't an issue to be defined along party lines. As I've said many times before, the Republicans got us into this mess and the Democrats don't have a plan to get us out.
Isn't it time we turned to those men and women with real credibility on the issue to lead us in the right direction?