Why aren't any of our senators and congressmen or their children fighting in the war?

sway_ii

because the military is voluntary.

â†“ImWithStupid â–‘â–‘â–’â–’â–“â–“

Because they are chickenhawks,

wannabefrogman6

why aren't you? but i do remember back in World War I and WWII when all the congressmen had to send their kids... and vietnam... or are you opposed to all of those too....?

sexygirlygirl

They are, in combat situations just like everybody else, just open your eyes and stop being such a judgemental creep!

Jared H

Because they are smarter than the people they represent;)

trex

Same question I asked in 1969. Same answer.

machine_head_327

Do your research!! There are members of congress as well as their children who are serving right now. John McCains youngest son is in the Marines.

scorbore

there are, did you watch Fahrenheit 911, because moore definitely left a lot of things out, try doing some research next time you ask a directive question, so that at least your directive is right

omnimog

because they are REAL Americans, the rest of us are just cannon fodder. Of course, when the aristocracy finally finishes us all off, who will be thier slaves then?

ssgtusmc3013

some are

Technotron

Because they don't consider their children to be American. The senators and congressmen all suffer from the God Complex and think their children are far too important to be fighting for America.

Those guys think that America should fight for them. The REAL question is this:

Why aren't any soldiers or citizens figthing against senators and congressmen ?

keepergary

You're kidding right?

alex_s_patrick

Are you crazy, they would be killed! Good luck though, to all the other soldiers risking their lives day and night for their country, (Sarcasm intended)

Brian Da Dog

Sen John McCain son joined the military. I think he went into Marines.

kariha83

some senator from some southern state had a kid who died in irak last week

allthebadonesaretaken

Because they are privileged. I did notice that Senator McCain's son enlisted.
Our politicians do a lot of bad things that are legal (but then they made the laws).

Naples_6

Matt Lourey, son of Minnesotan Senator Becky Lourey, died while serving in Iraq in 2005. Sgt. Brooks Johnson, who has served in Kosovo, Bosnia, Korea and Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq, is the son of Senator Tim Johnson. And Senator
John McCain's youngest son, Jimmy McCain, just joined the Marines, so there is a good chance he'll end up in Iraq when his boot-camp/training is over.
Just because someone has a parent that is a politician, doesn't mean they should have to run out and join the Military. It's like people who have asked why the President's two girls aren't out there fighting in Iraq. Well, they have the right to chose not to join the Military, just like the rest of us! Military life is for some people, and others don't see it as a way they want to live them life.

mrsjav

Care to rephrase your question......

NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of El Cajon is one of a handful in Congress who has children in the military. Marine 1st Lt. Duncan Duane Hunter is serving in Iraq.

On a visit to Iraq in June, Rep. Duncan Hunter gave a short speech to Marines in a Fallujah mess hall and told them how important they were in the war on terrorism.

One Marine in the audience found the congressman's talk so inspiring that he wrote about it in an e-mail to his mother. He said it lifted everyone's spirits and "erased all doubts I had about being here."

"I got chills, and thought about how proud I am to be fighting for America in my capacity," he wrote.

The Marine who sent that note was 1st Lt. Duncan Duane Hunter, Hunter's oldest son and one of a handful of troops in Iraq whose father or mother is a member of Congress.

The issue of how many lawmakers have children in Iraq was raised this summer in the controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is scheduled for release to the home-video market next month.

In one scene, producer Michael Moore said only one of the 535 members of Congress had an enlisted son in Iraq. According to his Web site, Moore was referring to Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, whose son deployed to Iraq in 2003.

No formal list is kept of how many members of Congress have children in Iraq, but it is clear Johnson, a Democrat, is not alone in having a child in uniform.

Hunter said two other members of the House Armed Services Committee that he chairs have sons in the military. The San Diego Union-Tribune was able to confirm that at least four more members of Congress also have children in the military. In addition to Duncan Duane Hunter, at least one of them is in Iraq.

Duncan Duane Hunter enlisted in the Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At the time he was working at a high-tech company and planning to enroll in graduate school. He was also married and the father of an infant son.

"I'd always felt a bit guilty about not joining the military and September 11 gave me a sense of duty that I'd never felt," he said. "That day gave me the reason and the willpower to quit my job and join."

He didn't discuss his decision with his father. Instead, the congressman learned of his son's new career when he saw him running up a canyon in Alpine, trying to get in shape.

Hunter said he wasn't surprised by his son's enlistment, because military service is a tradition in the family.

The congressman is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the Army. One of his brothers was in the Air Force. His father was a Marine officer in World War II.

"My urging for the country is that people from all walks of life should serve the country," said Hunter, R-El Cajon. "That is an important thing." For the congressman, having a son serving in Iraq "personalizes" his job and gives him insight into what military families are experiencing.

For Duncan Duane Hunter, 27, having a father who holds such a high-profile political post has brought its own challenges.

In college he remembers getting "a little razzing" about his dad from some of his San Diego State University professors. And in Officer Candidate School he was ordered to do extra push-ups by a drill instructor who said he hated politicians.

Duncan Duane Hunter, a guns platoon commander in an artillery battalion, said he tells his father how congressional decisions are playing out in the field.

"When Dad orders a bunch of body armor or scopes for the Marines, I can actually tell him if we got it and if it works," the son wrote in an e-mail to the Union-Tribune from Iraq.

"I tell him what I think the Marines really need, not what things will get the Pentagon the biggest contracts this quarter."

Duncan Duane Hunter said the "higher-ups" in his unit "don't necessarily enjoy the fact that a lieutenant is able to swing that much weight" but he does what he thinks is right for the military.

Defense has been one of Congressman Hunter's priorities since he was elected to Congress in 1980. For 24 years, he has served on the committee that helps mold defense policies and controls Pentagon budgets. He became its chairman in 2003.

In some ways, Hunter and his wife are typical Marine parents. When their son returned from Iraq the first time, they dropped everything â€“ including Hunter's appearance in a Fourth of July parade in Rancho Bernardo â€“ to be at Camp Pendleton when their son arrived.

"The military is a unifying force in our country that brings people together and puts them all on common ground," Hunter said. "We are out there on the tarmac, waiting for our son to come in, like all the other families."

In other ways, however, Hunter is far from a typical Marine dad.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he gets daily reports on casualties and military operations. And few fathers get the chance to visit a war zone where their son or daughter is stationed.

Hunter downplays his insider role. He said he has never contacted his son's superior officers to inquire about his son. And like most military parents he said he gets breaking news about front-line battles from the media â€“ even though he initially opposed allowing reporters to "embed" with combat troops.

"We know where the 1st Division is. Everyone in San Diego does," Hunter said. "Some of the best description of what happens in the area of operations comes from the newspapers."

While Hunter visited briefly with his son in June, he didn't see his son at all when he went to Iraq in May 2003. The logistics were too difficult, he said.

"I said let him do his job and I'll do mine," Hunter said. "You don't want to put people to trouble when they are out fighting a war so you could hook up with a kid."

While having a dad who is a congressman may not have boosted Duncan Duane Hunter's military career, it did come in handy for his love life.

In 1992, Margaret Jankowski, a senior at Crawford High School, volunteered to work in Hunter's local congressional office for a government class assignment. On Election Night, she was there with friends when she was introduced to Duncan Duane Hunter, then a junior at Granite Hills High.

"It was one of those love-at-first-sight things," Margaret Hunter recalled. "I knew that day I wanted to marry him. I broke it to him two weeks later."

They've been married since 1998 and have two children: Duncan, 3, and Elizabeth, 1. The family lives in base housing at Camp Pendleton.

As Duncan Duane Hunter's second deployment winds down, his father admits he worries about his son. His wife, Lynne, said she often prays for her oldest child and for the other Marines serving in Iraq.

"One thing I've learned is you always are concerned about your family," Hunter said. "You never stop being a dad."

chet

because the military is voluntary

River Rat Vietnam

Noticed that too, did you? Politicians and their children are too important to waste putting them into potentially bad situations. Don't forget that Clinton was a draft dodger. If the draft were reinstated, no senator or congressman's child would be drafted. Believe that. It would be left up to us cannon fodder.

sjsosullivan

Senators are the new nobility. They do not care about the People, any longer. The Democrat and the Republican both are as corrupt as the other, and merely want a legal golden parachute. It would be nice to see more veterans elected to office. Then we would have people in office who understand what it is to be shot at. Who understand what it is to hold their squadmates, and try to calm them down, while waiting on a corpsman to help out with the wound. Laws are nice, but warfare is ugly and brutal. It's best to have people who have experienced it firsthand making those decisions.

Stand-up Philosopher

Good question. Methinks that if our elected officials were retired military we would have less wars and less BS about war. They are chickenhawks. they love a good war when its somebody else doing the dying. This brings up some important questions, like "how is it that fat old men who have never been in the military are the ones deciding whether or not our warriors go to war?" Of course if you analyze the facts that are not public knowledge, you will find that this war isnt about getting cheap oil, freeing iraq from hussein, stopping terrorism, or any of that crap. the war is about 3 things: 1. making war unpopular so that US citizens would rather appease terrorists and give away their freedom to the UN rather than fight. 2. to sacrifice our best young men who value liberty and justice, so that there will be fewer dissenters when the NWO is instituted. 3. to drive UP prices on oil and everything else, further concentratng wealth for the richest 5%.

Nuke Lefties

You do know that our military is completely voluntary don't you. This is not a class thing (of course that's what you are trying to make it) it's a personal decision thing. If their kids choose not to enter the military that is their business, not yours.

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