Troops ready for ‘final march toward home’
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Those were the comments of three prominent S.C. Democrats who have served in the Gulf War, Iraq or Afghanistan during a conference call Wednesday arranged by the progressive Truman National Security Project.
“This is a great milestone, not only for our country but for the military,” said Rob Miller, a Marine Corps veteran who served twice in Iraq, in 2003 and 2004. “Its ‘mission accomplished’ and time to refocus our efforts … here at home to begin the process of rebuilding the middle class.”
The three Democrats – Miller, who twice made unsuccessful bids for Congress against Republican Joe Wilson; State Sen. Phil Leventis of Sumter, a fighter pilot in the Gulf War; and state Rep. James Smith of Columbia, who resigned his commission as a captain in the Army National Guard’s judge advocate general corps in 2003 to re-enlist in the infantry and fight in southern Afghanistan — praised President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign policy since taking office. In addition to ending the war in Iraq, they cited the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, the troop surge in Afghanistan and the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan as hallmarks of the administration’s accomplishments.
“Security is not all about having the strongest military, although we have the strongest military,” Leventis said. “It’s about our policies. And what we are seeing with an end to the war is a commitment (by Obama) to America … on issues such as energy and freedom.”
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