Back Home, More Frustration (Olympia Snowe gets earful on Iraq)

[RamboLiberal]

BRUNSWICK, Maine The woman stood waiting amid the lunch counter clatter at the Grand City Variety Store to confront Olympia J. Snowe.

"We need to get out," Stephanie Slocum told Snowe, one of Congress's most conflicted members over the war in Iraq. It was the Maine Republican's first week of her summer break, and Slocum was among the first of many constituents who would tell her the time to act is now.

The self-described "proud mother of an Army cavalry scout," Slocum is taking Iraq personally. She told Snowe in a matter-of-fact voice about her 27-year-old son, who is now home but shouts angrily at her, whose body trembles, who at times feels he is still in Iraq and who, if Congress does not begin to redeploy troops by September, will be sent back. She spoke of her son's leave that never came, the goggles to protect him that she had to buy herself and the mental health treatment he has just given up. Because, he told his mom, "what's the sense" if he has to go back.

"Outrageous," Snowe said of the problems. "I would encourage him to continue to get his care."

"I do, but you know how it is," Slocum said. "In the Army . . . if you get the therapy, it's shame on you."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/11/AR2007081100914_pf.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. K&R

We HAVE to take care of them when they come home.

[countmyvote4real]

2. The real shame is on our Congress that has failed to support the troops.

Putting aside the fact that we should NEVER have invaded that country. IF we are supposed to remain there, then our troops should have proper training, equipment and leave times. And yet, the Congress cannot agree to support any of these proposals.

I realize that most of this is the result of deliberate obstruction by the GOP, but they are aided by Blue Dog DINOs. It's long past time to clean house for anybody that continues to support our illegal occupation of Iraq.

Sorry to be so one-note, but there is no way we can really begin to focus on our domestic issues while we are still spending BILLIONS of dollars on lies and bogeymen.

The real bogeymen and threats are the * administration.

Impeach now. It doesn't matter if the GOP Senate fails to convict them. That will be their shame and downfall. The greater shame will fall to the Democratice House if they fail to do so.

The time to stop ths madness is long overdue.

[Mind_your_head]

3. Wow! Do *I* agree with your post/POV

"Putting aside the fact that we should NEVER have invaded that country....I realize that most of this is the result of deliberate obstruction by the GOP....It's long past time to clean house for anybody that continues to support our illegal occupation of Iraq....

...there is no way we can really begin to focus on our domestic issues while we are still spending BILLIONS of dollars on a lies and bogeymen...

...It doesn't matter if the GOP Senate fails to convict them. That will be their shame and downfall...."

Perfectly said! :applause: Thank you for articulating some very basic things that I feel/know, but am not able to express as easily/simply as you just did.

edit: spelling

[countmyvote4real]

4. Thanks. Sometimes I think that I'm just shooting blanks in the dark here.

We do have to be more vocal and confrontational at our local levels. I intend to do so, I hope that you do as well.

Peace.

[Mind_your_head]

5. No, you're not 'shooting blanks in the dark'

I think a whole lotta folks watch this site (and others like it) in an attempt to gauge what 'the people' are thinking (not that they care at all, of course.....just that the 'masters' don't want a revolt on their hands. They wouldn't know how to deal with such a revolt, of course....it just wouldn't 'work', ya know?!?!)

[MissWaverly]

13. I try but I am getting nowhere with my Senator

she is a great person and a great Dem but she voted for the Gonzo FISA bill.

[cui bono]

14. No, you're not. I completely agree with you. n/t

[calimary]

12. Damn straight. It's probably the ONLY way to get us out of Iraq sooner

than later. IMPEACH THE DAMNED BASTARD!!!!

[formercia]

6. At least Snowe takes the time to listen

and I think she does care, but she is a minority in the GOP.

[rodeodance]

10. "just doesn't make sense to people like ourselves."

During her visits this week to Brunswick and Portland and towns in between, her constituents told Snowe that what she said last year, or even last month, was no longer enough. In tales of outward pride and private grief, they nearly all demanded that the war end now.

Snowe turned to Slocum and told her that what Mainers think about the war does matter. "I know it doesn't seem that way. But there is a lot of movement, I think," she said. Snowe said that a progress report on the war due from the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in mid-September "will be a catalyst for change."

Slocum said she hopes so. But this war, she told Snowe, "just doesn't make sense to people like ourselves."

[rodeodance]

11. They don't trust the government to help them."

They seemed to be talking from two distant places. The poet musing on his veterans and their pain. The senator using Washington words to say she understands. She has been to Iraq twice and said she will go again in September, that she has spoken to the president. "On an individual basis, if you know of anything our office can do to help," she said, motioning to an aide.

Lawless shook his head. "They don't trust the government to help them."

In a coffeehouse across the street, Snowe found Jennifer James, 28, who had just returned from duty in the Green Zone. As a member of the 356th Broadcast Operations Detachment, James had heard Army briefings and the satellite feeds of members of Congress who broadcast messages home during tours there.

"What do you think?" Snowe asked her.

[EVDebs]

7. NYT article says Dems now want to stay in Iraq

WTF, 'stay the course' ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1570205&mesg_id=1571462

[rodeodance]

8. There is nothing new in that article if you have been following the candidates and their speeches

[rodeodance]

9. ......frustrated, too, with Snowe's careful hedging on Iraq. "

......As she spoke, Slocum's poise slipped, and her voice shook. She was frustrated, most of all, with the failure of Washington to make it end -- and frustrated, too, with Snowe's careful hedging on Iraq. "I think you've changed your position a little bit, and we're very appreciative of that," she told her senator. "But it doesn't seem like whatever we think -- as the majority of people in Maine and across the country -- it doesn't seem to have any impact."

Snowe has changed her position. A believer that the war was a lost cause, she had nonetheless remained loyal to President Bush and against calling for a firm deadline for a troop withdrawal, which congressional Democrats had been demanding. But last month, she gave in to her concerns about a war that appeared without end and became one of only two GOP senators to join Democrats in calling for a timeline to bring troops home, an effort that so far has failed.