Jim Webb Quotes
There should be a 5% tax break for people who served in the military…. We are developing a class divide in military, service. Very few people who have brought us this war have served in the military and very view of their children have served.
Under the all volunteer army those who serve in the military had become concentrated in the lower socio economic class of American society. Over 40% are minority and relatively few are college graduates. At the same time there were relatively few veterans among the members of Congress and the State legislatures and the executive branch and few of their children or grandchildren serve in the military.
James Webb, Secretary of the Navy (Republican), U. S. Senator (Democrat, VA), Debate, NBC Meet the Press, September 17, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time veterans would have to wait for up to a year till they could get their records and their benefits from the Veterans Administration which had insufficient budget while the Defense Department had as much money as the Military-Industrial complex could lobby for.
Wood was one of the first to call for conscription for a peacetime army as well as in wartime.
The Centograph is a war memorial monument in London. On Remembrance Day, a British Patriotic Holiday, veterans march past the Centograph. The quotation is text uttered by one of her characters.
The George W. Bush Administration had gone to war against Iraq for reasons that turned out not to be true, and then after a military victory with few casualties, botched the occupation of the country and a vicious insurgency developed bogging down the nation in its longest war in history. The major burden fell on the armed forces and their families. The hearings were in part examining the Bush Administration policies.
When it came to legislation that affected veterans, the members of Congress were in an all or nothing situation. If there was a bill to extend or improve a benefit for veterans, the member would be classified completely on how he/she voted on the singular issue. Begitch summed the dilemma for legislators well with this quote.
Most pressure for political correctness comes from the center or the left. On this area however, pressure to avoid speaking of this comes from left and right. The left is concerned that by discussing the reality the poorer performing subgroups will be stigmatized and public behavior will make the situation worse. The right would prefer that there is little or no political dialogue regarding the huge differences in outcome in America where individual ability and effort seems to play such a large part of the differential. I addition, they see the making of these distinctions as the beginning of class warfare.
James Henry Webb Jr. is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States Senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a decorated Marine Corps officer.
