AP: War veterans hold different views of midterms

[cowcommander]

NORFOLK, Va. – Just days after returning from Iraq, Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher Ahn ordered a beer — and got an earful on the side. Ahn's waitress disparaged the Iraq war and President George W. Bush, accused Ahn of slaughtering innocent people and vilified the Marines as crazy killers. The 2006 encounter at a Costa Mesa, Calif., bar left him speechless.

"There's nothing I could say to this girl," recalled Ahn, now a graduate student at the University of Virginia. "The chasm of knowledge and experiences was so wide that I thought, 'What am I going to do?'" The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are taking a back seat to jobs and the economy as political issues in the midterm elections. A poll released in August by the Pew Research Center found that only 59 percent of registered voters rated Afghanistan as a very important issue compared with 90 percent who said the economy was very important. But for some who have served in those conflicts, wartime experience is driving their political views.

Interviews with dozens of active-duty and retired service members who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq show a diverse response in terms of politics and activism. Many say they have withdrawn from politics because of their wartime and postwar experiences. Others find themselves in the center of today's political battlefield.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101029/ap_on_el_ge/us_veterans_politics

[DCKit]

1. 'Cause everyone knows the wars are costing U.S. absolutely zilch.

Morans.

[Winterblues]

2. How many Afghani's or Iraqis made up the 19 that pulled off 9-11?

What the Hell are we doing in either country killing women and children?