When the war finally became personal for members of Congress

When members of Congress take a step outside the closed off shell known as Capitol Hill -- whether for meetings with constituents or tours overseas -- they tend to re-develop their human side.  Last week, the outrage by senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA) over President Bush's troop escalation turned very personal.  They were informed about the death of a soldier that they met in Iraq over the holidays, who warned the senators what what troops were going through now that the military is over-extended to a breaking point:

Just before Christmas, an Army captain named Brian Freeman corneredSens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) at aBaghdad helicopter landing zone. The war was going badly, he told them.Troops were stretched so thin they were doing tasks they never dreamedof, let alone trained for.

Freeman, 31, took a short holiday leave to see his 14-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son, returned to his base in Karbala, Iraq ,and less than two weeks ago died in a hail of bullets and grenades.Insurgents, dressed in U.S. military uniforms, speaking English anddriving black American SUVs, got through a checkpoint and attacked,kidnapped four soldiers and later shot them. Freeman died in theassault, the fifth casualty of the brazen attack.

The death of the West Point graduate -- a star athlete from Temecula,Calif., who ran bobsleds and skeletons with Winter Olympians -- hasradicalized Dodd, energized Kerry and girded the ever-moreconfrontational stance of Democrats in the Senate. Freeman's death hasreverberated on the Senate floor, in committee deliberations and ontelevision talk shows.

You have to wonder why it takes something like this to happen for some senators to wake up and take a bold position on the war?  The answer is that we are all human, and most human concerns are local.  Sure, most of us are outraged by the war, and would like to see it end.  But the people that are internally depressed because of Bush's failed policy are the ones that actually knew someone who lost their life in battle.

In other words, if all of the victims in this war were the family, friends and acquaintances of lawmakers, then we would not be in Iraq today.  I guess it goes to show how removed the Washington establishment currently is from all the military communities that deal with this tragic reality on a daily basis.