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Members of Congress with children in Iraq (last updated August 8, 2004)
Fahrenheit 9/11 closes with a stunt: Michael Moore's attempt to get members of Congress to send their children to serve in Iraq as a way of pointing out the class divide between the United States' leaders and the people who serve in the military. Moore does acknowledge that at the start of the war in Iraq, there appears to have been only one member of Congress with a child serving in Iraq: Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota), whose son Brooks serves in the Army.
Two more Congressmen had sons who reportedly were being sent to Iraq in late 2003 or early 2004: Representatives Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) and Duncan Hunter (R-California).
In addition, there are some other members of Congress and the Bush administration with children or relatives serving in the military if not necessarily in Iraq. For example, Representative Mark Kennedy (R-Minnesota), who was seen in Fahrenheit 9/11, reportedly has a nephew serving in Afghanistan, and one of his four children reportedly was thinking of joining the navy. Attorney General John Ashcroft's son Andrew also reportedly has served in the Navy in the Persian Gulf.
In any event, the larger question asked by Fahrenheit 9/11 is whether the people who make the decisions about war would think differently if they had close personal ties to those who actually have to fight those wars.
Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York), who served in the Korean War, called in late 2002 for a reinstatement of the draft, saying that such a draft would help the military meet its needs and also force political leaders to be more cautious.
"Decision-makers who support the war would more readily feel the pain of conflict and appreciate the sacrifice of those on the front lines if their children were there too," Rangel wrote in a January 7, 2003 op-ed piece (on-line here). "Minorities comprise 35 percent of the military and Blacks 20 percent, well above their proportion of the general population. They, along with poor and rural Whites do more than their fair share of service in our ground forces. Yet the value of our foot soldiers is demeaned by those who promote the unproven notion that high-tech warfare will bring a quick and easy victory in Iraq."
There are no studies tracking the number of politicians with children in the military. Surveys conducted for the Defense Department have find that young people who have better educational and career prospects are less likely to enter the military and that the children of educated, affluent parents were less likely to seriously consider military service, factors which could suggest that children of Congressmen would be less likely to enter the military themselves.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney do not have children serving in the military. John Kerry and John Edwards do not either.
Sources: Kirsten B. Mitchell, Media General News Service, Few lawmakers have children in military (November 16, 2003).
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