She didn't monetize her sacrifice—she answered the call.
The Senate hearing room went cold when the insult landed.
Tammy Duckworth sat across from J.D. Vance, waiting for him to answer her question. She'd come prepared with policy, with specifics, with the kind of detailed inquiry that veterans' issues demand. But instead of engaging, Vance chose a different route. He compared her to Forrest Gump.
Let that sink in for a moment. A sitting senator, facing a decorated combat veteran who'd left parts of herself on an Iraqi battlefield, thought a fictional character was the appropriate reference.
Duckworth's response was surgical. She didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to. When you've piloted a Black Hawk helicopter through hostile fire, when you've felt the explosion that tears through metal and bone, when you've woken up in a hospital missing both legs and part of an arm, petty insults from small men barely register.
November 12, 2004. That's the day her helicopter was hit by an RPG over Iraq. She was co-piloting, focused on her mission, when the world turned to fire and shrapnel. The rocket-propelled grenade destroyed her aircraft and nearly destroyed her. Most people would have let that be the end of their service story.
Duckworth spent a year in recovery at Walter Reed. She learned to walk again on prosthetic legs. Then she went back to work.
No book tour about resilience. No cable news circuit trading on sacrifice. She didn't monetize her Purple Heart or turn her injuries into a personal brand. She served in the Illinois National Guard, then ran for office to continue serving in a different capacity.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel. Combat veteran. Purple Heart recipient. The first disabled woman elected to Congress, then to the Senate. The first senator to give birth while in office, bringing her newborn onto the Senate floor because the rules hadn't contemplated a working mother who'd also taken shrapnel for her country.
When Vance tried his cheap shot, she treated it exactly like what it was: noise from someone who'd never answered a question he found uncomfortable. She'd faced real danger. She knew the difference between actual courage and performance art patriotism.
That's who Tammy Duckworth is. Remember it.
@BowesChay From where I'm standing, the only tools are Russian and those who support Russias disastrous and illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has achieved no more than millions of unnecessary deaths (mostly Russian) and suffering of innocent people.
African nationals captured fighting for Russia in Ukraine are appealing to participants at the Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled to take place in Moscow on October 28-29, to help secure their release.
"We have been in captivity for quite a long time, and it feels as though we've been forgotten. I hope our governments will represent us at the summit and help secure a prisoner exchange," says a citizen of Botswana.
According to the I Want to Live* project, people from 59 countries, including 18 in Africa, have been taken prisoner by Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
During this time, Russia has not taken back a single African national through a prisoner exchange.
*I Want to Live is a Ukrainian project of the Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, established with the support of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Defense Intelligence of Ukraine. It is intended for servicemen of the Russian armed forces willing to voluntarily surrender into captivity.
@badger65356 Sorry guys, no bonking for me tonight..
Im currently licking my balls, only because I can..
Ahh fuckit, on second thoughts, bonking vatniks is far more pleasurable than licking ones own nads.. 🤣
La barbarie des russes dans toute sa monstruosité en train d’assassiner des prisonniers Ukrainiens
Quand on pense que Witkoff a qualifié poutine d’humanitaire alors qu’il ne vaut pas mieux que les « dignitaires » nazis jugés à Nuremberg
Russian casualties from Ukrainian drones have passed 300,000 since January 1. That is roughly 1,000 a day, every day, for almost ten months.
Every hit is recorded on video in DELTA and verified by @BRAVE1ua. No month has dropped below 26,000, and March peaked at nearly 34,000.
Every Russian soldier stopped by a drone is one who never reaches a Ukrainian position. Verified hits earn units points for more drones, EW systems and UGVs through Brave1 Market.
Read more:
https://t.co/YixixCxthR
@hottaspotta Ash shit, I missed the photo opportunity..
Too busy eating cold pineapple pizza with curry sauce in sex tunnel 68...
Its the breakfast of kings..
@ColdwaterHunt@rinalu_ That is why the Russians poured so much manpower into the eastern front, the Russian army was tactically incompetent compared to the Germans.
All thanks to Stalins great idea to kill 80% of his generals..
@ColdwaterHunt@rinalu_ The eastern front was huge, but without western support, Russia would have been defeated by Nazi Germany by 1942.
Had Stalin not murdered his own forces in the 1938 great purge, Russia may have had a quality armed forces.. it didn't
@jerryzqsh@rinalu_ So nothing to do with Operation Barberossa when the Nazis attacked Russia.
Within days of that attack, Winston Churchill was in parliament requesting agreement to support Russia, which was achieved 1 day later.
Within 9 weeks, Britain was sending weapons and aid to Russia.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ I appreciate this is speculation, but the consensus points to this outcome.
So when making accusations of a lack of knowledge on a subject, make sure the details you quote are factually correct.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ In which case, it is highly likely to break the deadlock the first nuclear devices would have been used in Europe, not Japan.
Major capitals would have been destroyed in Germany, Poland and Russia.
Moscow would not exist as it does today.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ The outcome of the war would have been completely different.
The USSR would have collapsed and Russian society destroyed.
It is possible that in this scenario, Russia would have retreated back to the Urals, the European land war would have gone on longer.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ Had Churchill not stood in Parliament stating a deal with the devil is better than with Nazi Germany, referring to Stalin as the devil, and had the US not invested billions in support of Russia, Russia probably would exist.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ Its an offense in Russia to mention the joint USSR and Nazi parades or the murder of Polish officers at Katyn, focusing on a fictional story of Russia being a victim and the enemy always being in the West.
Russia conveniently forgets the huge contribution from the West.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ However if you ask a Russian who won WW2, it was them..
The vatniks history is a bastardisation of the truth, created to paint the Russians as the deefaters of Nazi Germany while glossing over any collaboration with the Nazis.
@bobingtonus@rinalu_ So no, I don't think John Wayne won the war and my granddad insisted it was him.
However my family served in multiple regiments, including the expeditionary force, RAF in Egypt and my great nan was awarded an MBE for being a spitfire lady.