Duckworth: 'patriot' barb 'cheapest of shots'

September 17, 2007

BY DAN MORAN dmoran@scn1.com

MUNDELEIN — Standing before a room full of Democrats Sunday morning, Tammy Duckworth said she never had any doubts about where she stood politically when she served as an Army officer flying Black Hawk helicopters in the Iraq War.

“I had always been a closet Democrat. Even in the Army, nobody outed me,” she said to laughter from a full house at the Lake County Democratic Women Power Luncheon.

But she recalled that “I thought they might figure it out at Walter Reed,” the Army medical center in Washington, D.C., where she was sent after a rocket-propelled grenade shot down her Black Hawk and took both her legs in November 2004.

“I refused to allow then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld into my room,” she said, adding that, when Rumsfeld’s staff asked if he could visit, she asked her superiors if she had any choice. Told that she did, she recalled, “I told them ‘I do not want that man to cross the threshold of my room.’”

The anecdote underscored the feelings Duckworth still bears nearly a year after she narrowly lost a bid for Congress in the 6th Illinois District. Now the director of the Illinois Veterans’ Affairs Department, Duckworth told her audience that “I really don’t want to get into politics,” but she made it clear that she still questions the Bush administration’s handling of the War on Terror.

At one point, Duckworth said, “I’m always offended” when people question her patriotism for speaking out. “It is the cheapest of shots, and it just detracts from the issues at hand ... This whole thing about, ‘If you don’t support the war, you don’t support the troops,’ that is a false argument.”

But she added that when it comes to whether or not the United States should have invaded Iraq, she feels “we’re beyond that question, and we need to focus on what we need to do now.” One focus, she said, should be on the cost of care for veterans as they return from the Middle East.

“I don’t think the country understands the true cost of how much we’re going to spend in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “I think it’s a reflection of the lack of planning for this war that there was no plan for what we’d do with our veterans when they came home.”

Duckworth pointed out that the Veterans Administration is still providing care for World War II vets, and Vietnam veterans — who represent 10 percent of those receiving assistance — are hitting their mid-60s and will start needing more medical aid.

In comments to the media before her speech, Duckworth said there will be “a cost for this (Iraq) war over the next 50 years caring for these veterans ... It will be billions of dollars to care for these veterans once they come home.”

Pointing to her own artificial legs, Duckworth said, “These cost upwards of $120,000, and I’m one person and that’s for one pair.”

While Duckworth was seated when she chatted with the media, she walked to the podium with the aid of a cane and stood for her formal remarks. State Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, introduced Duckworth as “a woman with an imposing resume and a more inspiring life.”

“Above all,” Garrett said, “she’s an American citizen in its finest form.”

Duckworth began her speech by asking all veterans in the room to stand, then asked them to remain standing while family members of active service personnel also stood up.

“I do that for a couple of reasons,” she said after some 20 to 30 people stood up. “First of all, you deserve every bit of gratitude … (But) I also do it to illustrate the baloney that the other side puts out — that we don’t love our country and we haven’t served.”