43
Sen. Brown explains vote for more war funds
Movie
A Mighty Heart
On Jan. 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl's world changed forever. Her husband Daniel, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew them to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned. In the face of death, Danny's spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his eventual murder in her memoir "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. She wrote the book to introduce Adam to the father he would never meet. Transcending religion, race and nationality, Mariane's courageous desire to rise above the bitterness and hatred that continues to plague this post 9/11 world, serves as the purest expression of the joy of life she and Danny shared.
Photo
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Avon)
The senator says he expects a time line to be debated again in September.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he voted in favor of bill to fund the war in Iraq without a withdrawal time line because of his political concern that President Bush “would have used the troops” to garner support and sympathy for his position to keep the U.S. military in that country.
“The president would have gone to the people and said, ‘Congress is eliminating funding for troops,’” Brown, a Democrat from Avon, Ohio, told The Vindicator on Wednesday.
The Senate approved the legislation 80-14 last week. The legislation includes about $95 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30. The bill also includes nonbinding goals Congress wants Iraq to achieve in establishing a democratic government.
The original bill included an 18-month time line for withdrawal.
Brown said he wanted Senate Democratic leadership to include the time line and have Bush veto it again.
But Brown, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said that decision had the potential to alienate the small number of Republicans who want a time line by constantly challenging the president.
Brown said he didn’t know what he would do until the day of the vote.
Brown, who still favors a time line, expects that to be debated in the Senate in September.
“Some Republicans are losing patience with Bush’s Iraq policy, and that may add more Republican votes” for a time line, he said.
Brown said Bush’s top advisers, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are convinced they’re right about U.S. troops in Iraq, even though polls show most Americans want the soldiers to come home.
“They believe 30 years from now they’ll be” proven to have made the right decision, Brown said.
Issues for veterans
Also Wednesday, Brown held a roundtable discussion with about 30 people — primarily veterans and officials in Northeast Ohio who work with vets — to discuss issues including improvements to veterans’ services, the GI Bill and employment challenges.
Brown is the first Ohio senator to serve on the Committee on Veterans Affairs in 35 years.
Anthony Nagle of Struthers, who was a Marine sergeant who served in Iraq, said when he left active duty no one wanted to hire him.
“All my [military] friends had problems getting employment,” he said. “When I was on active duty, people kept telling me how proud they were and then those same people didn’t want to do anything for me when I was looking for a job.”
Brown said Nagle’s case isn’t unusual. Some employers are concerned that those who just left active duty will be called back to serve and have to leave their jobs, Brown said.
Others at the roundtable called for increased federal funding to pay for mental health issues for veterans and for a law to be passed to make it easier to use money from the GI Bill to attend colleges and universities.
skolnick@vindy.com