Issue Position: Veterans

Issue Position

Our remarkable area, bordering the nation's capital and the Potomac River, is home to the headquarters of the U.S. military, as well as to Arlington Cemetery, the final resting place for tens of thousands of men and women who served our country with valor.

Those facts alone impart a need for leadership on veterans' issues from the people and the member of Congress from this district.

Beyond the moral responsibility, I feel personal ties to these issues. My dad, who lived to be 93, was a West Point graduate who served in Korea and then was part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Trieste (where I was born). My father-in-law, who lived to be 92,, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded two Purple Hearts. It is extraordinary what their generation gave us, and what the military generations following have continued to do.

We owe our troops and, after their service, our veterans, the best possible care. And when there are problems with that care, we should move in good faith -- and without unnecessary partisan rancor -- to remedy the situation. We also must strive to be a nation that engages in foreign conflicts only after deeply thoughtful consideration of all factors, recognizing that inevitably we will bury women and men from that conflict, and that it is likely to be difficult to withdraw our forces from the conflict once we are part of it.

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