For background, Webb's recent bill to require that soldiers deployed to Iraq have at least as much time at home as they spent deployed before being redeployed was recently defeated by the Republicans. The Republicans objected to what they called "Congressional micro-management of the war in Iraq." Here is a limited transcript:
Here’s some highlights:Jim Webb is an Annapolis graduate who served a lot of time in combat in Vietnam as a Marine Corps officer and was decorated for his service. He then wrote what I still consider won of the best books to come out of the Vietnam War, Fields of Fire (1978) ISBN 0-553-58385-9. Later he worked as a war correspondent and then was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1984 to 1987, followed service as Secretary of the Navy from 1987 through 1988. Jim Webb knows the military quite well.
Graham: “The surge has been in place for two weeks” Webb: “we didn’t do that in two weeks”
Webb: “It’s been a hard month Lindsey, hasn’t it?”
Webb: “Lindsey’s had a hard month. These people who have gathered around the President, you know, on the immigration bill and this bill, I know it’s been tough. We gotta bring people together …” (more down below)
Webb: “We’re now in a situation where the soldiers and the Marines are having less than a one to one ratio [time at home versus time at war], and somebody needs to speak up for them instead of simply defending what this President …”
Graham: “Well, they reenlist in the highest numbers anywhere than the…”
Webb: “This one thing I really take objection to is politicians …”
Lindsey keeps interrupting
Webb: “May I speak? … Is politicians who put their political views in the mouths of soldiers. You can look at poll after poll and the political views of the United States military are no different than the country writ large. Go take a look at the New York Times today. Less than half of the military believes that we should have been in Iraq in the first place.”
Graham: “Have you ever been to Iraq? Have you ever been?”
Webb: “Have you ever been to these … I’ve covered two wars as a correspondent.”
cross-talk
Graham: “Have you been to Iraq and talked to the soldiers?”
Webb: “You know, you haven’t been to Iraq Lindsey. (cross-talk).
You go see the dog and pony show. That’s what Congressman do.”
cross talk
Webb: “I’ve been a member of the military more than the Senators been a Senator.”
———
Webb: “35% of the United States military agrees with the policy of this President.”
Graham: “Well, why do they keep reenlisting? Why do they go back?”
Webb: “Because they love their country. (cross-talk) They do not do it for political reasons. Believe me, my family’s been doing this since the Revolutionary War.”
Graham: “Yea? Well so has my family.”
Webb: “They do it because they love their country. They do it because they have a tradition, and it is the responsibility of our national leaders so make sure that they are used properly.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham joined ROTC in order to learn to fly, then was found not qualified for flight training. He took his commission into the Air Force, but due to family problems delayed entry on active duty until after getting his law degree in 1981. He entered active duty with the Air Force as a JAG Prosecutor and served on active duty for six years. He has remained as a Judge Advocate General Officer in the Air Force Reserve and has been promoted to Colonel.
There is also the rumor that Sen. Graham is Gay. Here is what was written during Sen. Graham's race for the Senate seat The Beat:
There is a dark current that may or may not be running below the surface of the campaign of Lindsey Graham vs. Alex Sanders. This almost unspoken thread could ultimately prove to be of no significance, but it won’t quite go away. For lack of a better name, call it the Family Issue.The Nassau Weekly has also discussed the rumor.
It arose during the debate at Clemson last week in the form of a question from South Carolina Educational Radio correspondent Tom Fowler to Alex Sanders. Fowler noted that Sanders had been running television spots that emphasized him being a husband and a father. “By saying that, it leaves the question that Mr. Graham is not married and is not a father. What difference do you think that really makes and should it be a negative for Mr. Graham for not being married or a father?”
Under normal circumstances, such a question would never have been asked. For a candidate to show his or her family in a campaign brochure or commercial is standard procedure. Sanders said he did not intend it as a negative towards Graham. “I think life experiences are what qualifies us for public office,” he added. “For example, you can’t understand a health care problem until a health care problem is crying in your lap.”
This whole exchange must have puzzled some viewers, but there was an unspoken subtext to the reporter’s question. When Graham first announced his intention to seek the Senate seat in February of last year, S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian issued a press release that included the statement that “This guy is a little too light in the loafers to fill Strom Thurmond’s shoes.”
There was an immediate uproar because “light in the loafers” is a slang expression that means, among other definitions, “homosexual” or “gay.” According to a Wall Street Journal website, Graham responded by saying the phrase “was intended to slander me.”
a few years ago, the head of the state Democratic Party, Dick Harpootlian (who recently engineered South Carolina’s leapfrogging ahead in the ’08 Presidential primary) publicly averred that the future Senator Lindsey Graham was “light in the loafers.” This beautiful country-club euphemism meant – as we all learned during the subsequent George-Allen-style is-it-a-slur-or-not scandal – “homosexual.” There’s a perpetual rumor in South Carolina to this effect, and Graham’s girly first name, soft looks, and immaculate bachelorhood certainly aren’t doing him any favors.The Air Force has aways been more "Gay-Friendly" than that Army or Marine Corps, so his reserve career in the Air Force JAG does not give the Senator any particular machismo credits.
Whether Sen. Graham is Gay or not is not important to his job as a Senator, but even the rumor of it would make it very difficult for him to have any clue why soldiers and Marines reenlist into a war that many consider to be - at best - ill considered. As Webb points out, Graham's only contact with real combat troops has been as the recipient of military Dog-and_pony shows designed to influence politicians. Those tend to make Potemkin Villages look haphazard and uncontrolled in comparison.
What it comes down to is that Jim Webb has been there, while the only way Lindsey Graham could possibly know what is going on is if he has read Webb's book, "Fields of Fire."
I am retired Army myself. (REMF, not combat - too blind for the artillery.) I can understand why Soldiers and Marines would reenlist in large numbers yet disapprove of the war they are fighting. I detest this misbegotten war that has no purpose that a sane person (i.e. NOT Cheney) can discern. But if they could find a job that I could do at my current age I'd return to active duty in a heartbeat. As a career friend of mine once said during the Vietnam debacle, "It's a shitty little war, but it's the only one we've got."
Politicians use the military, but damned few of them know anything about the military. You don't get that kind of knowledge out of books.
Thank you, Jim Webb, for speaking for the military.
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