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Wife of Fallen Vet: After a Decade of War, Hagel Hearing Should Focus on How We Can Finish Our Mission and Honor the Lost

Feb. 1, 2013 1:41pm

Jane Horton is a political consultant, active in military and veteran's affairs, and proud Gold Star wife to SPC Christopher Horton, an Army sniper killed in […]

Jane Horton is a political consultant, active in military and veteran's affairs, and proud Gold Star wife to SPC Christopher Horton, an Army sniper killed in action on September 9, 2011 in Paktyia, Afghanistan. Mrs. Horton has a bachelors degree in Public Administration from Roger’s State University. Her strong passion is to remain influential in making sure the voices of those left behind in war are heard, and caring for those who have borne the battle, and their widow and orphans. Jane has been a guest speaker at NYU, has been featured in USA Today, ABC, The Blaze, and on Fox and Friends, and with numerous paper publications and talk shows.

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janehorton@live.com

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Fallen Veterans Wife Describes Thoughts While Inside the Hagel Hearing

Former Senator and Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel being question by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (Getty, AP images)

As I walked through the Senate doors and entered the hearing room, I weaved my way through excited interns, an eager press, ardent supporters and protestors to take a seat at one of the most significant cabinet confirmations of our time. The Hagel confirmation hearings made Thursday a very important day in American history for the job of Secretary of Defense is more meaningful than ever in not only protecting America’s security and vital interests in the world, but also making decisions that will either nullify or secure our progress in Afghanistan.

As Senator Levin stated, the biggest undertaking of the next Secretary will be to negotiate the winding down of the Afghan war. While I sat during a grueling, nearly eight hour grilling of Senator Chuck Hagel, many things flooded through my mind. Above all else though, this war weighed heavy on my heart. Would the decisions that this man makes be worthy of the “dead Americans” in Iraq and Afghanistan who gave their last full measure of devotion to our country?

In Afghanistan, where 66,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed, Hagel insinuated that he wasn’t sure how many troops should remain in the country after our commitment expires in 2014. “If I am confirmed, I will need to better understand all the dimensions of this.” Hagel stated.

“The key to this transition is ensuring the readiness and ability of Afghan security forces to take over the defense of their own country,” Senator Levin stated. “I have always believed that should be our main mission and its key to success.”

With a corrupt government, local and national police force, this convoluted job will be anything but a piece of cake. Whether or not Hagel is the right man for the job, we cannot ” lose” this war, we cannot let go of all of the progress we have made just to exit a quagmire. There are far too many investments into the country- with my own patriot’s blood being left in the dirt of Paktya province, sacrificed out of a valiant heart, to free an oppressed people, and moreso love for the country that he left to give his all to serve and protect. Part of my heart was left in Zormat district on September 9th, 2011, when my husband, SPC Christpher Horton, gave his last breath to the mission in Afghanistan and protection of the American people.

“I always ask the question is this going to be worth the sacrifice, because there will be sacrifice,” Hagel said [ on the surge in Iraq] . “Now, was it required? Was it necessary? Senator McCain has his own opinion on that, shared by others. I am not sure. I am not that certain that it was required. It doesn’t mean I am right.”

The question is not whether or not the surge or loss was required or necessary, but more so, how are we going to protect our gain and our interests in two nations that we have now spent the longest time in war with in American history. Those losses will never be regained, but we can honor them by being responsible, by finishing the task that they gave their all towards, and by protecting those here at home and making sure they continue to sleep peacefully in their beds at night.

Despite many Americans’ belief that once the wars are over, they can wipe their hands clean from the conflicts, they are wrong. The end of a war is almost like cleaning up a devastating hurricane, there are many to look after, many injured, wounded, displaced, and there are many that bear the visible and invisible wounds of war. As the number of casualties for the Iraq/Afghan wars surpasses 6,500, there are many widows and orphans that need the support of America, and many service members who have bravely borne the battle. Many soldiers are coming home without jobs, many with PTSD, and many other consequences to war that we still don’t know how to fully address.

Don’t get me wrong, the Afghan war is not the only issue on the table. Iran is on the verge of obtaining nukes, North Korea is taunting us weekly, and there is a huge question mark as to where exactly Syria’s chemical weapons are. Not to mention the looming deficit and the almost certain threat of sequestration- the DOD will be obligated to work with the smallest budget in years and be forced to cut vital programs and defense spending.

In July 2011, when I was a Senate intern, I had a quick conversation with Senator Levin as he hurried through the halls of the Russell Senate office building to cast a vote. I told him about my deployed husband who was currently in Afghanistan with Oklahoma’s 45th infantry brigade combat team, and I gave him a pin with the 45th Thunderbird on it. I’ll never forget what he said to me, “I am so sorry.” I always wondered what he meant in those words- as if he knew something I didn’t know. I’ll never forget that day, nor will I forget the encounter I had with him today in the same Senate hall. Today I told him something different- I reminded him of our previous meeting, and told him this time that my husband did not make it home. I humbly told him how thankful I was for his work, and how important it is to me to make sure my husband’s and so many others’ sacrifices are worth it.

This nation has a great responsibility on it’s hands and a mission that we have no choice but to succeed in. We have invested far too many interests to achieve anything less, and our new Secretary of Defense, whoever it may be, will be vital in this mission.

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Comments (18)

Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 3, 2013 at 1:36pm
I thought obama/clinton (the most powerful women in American history) already resolved all this ‘war’ stuff! So why is it being rehashed? Could it be?

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spfoam1
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:36pm
@rose-ellen…You talk out of both ends. If you are a Catholic as you claim, you are insane. Your emotional attachment to Osama Bin Laden is obvious, like a groupie to a rock star. You really seem to love and sympathize with him. You better check your history with regard to when the muslims started attacking the United States, and why. No matter what happens, people like you will blame the USA.

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- Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on February 3, 2013 at 1:48pm
  Carter, Clinton, Obama. The common thread is that THEY are the interlopers the radical muslims always cite. They complain when Reagan. Bush 1, 2 beat the crapp out of them, but they ALWAYS cite incidence of nation building by Democrats. Jihadists are no different than alinsky radicals. That is why alinsky radicals and islamic extremists walk hand in hand. They distort the same truth while blaming others for the havoc that they wreak.
  
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Guitar Master
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:26pm
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
From THE REPORTER
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Say, can somebody please give me the actual reason/s we were in Iraq and are in Afghanistan? We were told that Iraq had nukes but that turned out to be an untruth (also referred to as a lie).

Then we went to Afghanistan to “go kill the Taliban” which is what we’ve been doing. Not one person has given a bona-fide answer as to what the real reason is. Seems to me that most of the maniacs that committed 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia or am I pipe-dreaming. Yet, we spend the blood of our best and brightest and our nation’s treasure fighting for “the” cause. . . what cause?

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- KidCharlemagne
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:27pm
  Read Michael Reagan’s column (especially the last half) from October 5, 2012 entitled ‘Building On A Kernel Of Truth’ and everything will be crystal clear for you at that point….
  
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- spfoam1
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 12:58pm
  @KidCharlemagne….That’s a very good article. This is and has been much larger than most would even imagine. Putin is a viper in the grass near our feet.
  
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EZrider12
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:41pm
First off….I’m truely sorry to hear of your loss, Mrs. Horton. Your husband, without a doubt is an American Hero. May god bless you.

I would also like to thank you for your well written article. It show the facts without any of the bias that we see so much in the main stream media these days. It must have been extra difficult for you to refrain from being bias having lost your husband in such a manner.

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- rose-ellen
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:12pm
  These people voluntreered to go kill men women and children in afghanistan. My sympathies are with them.And what is ptsd-but a euphymism for anger at the fact they did not have a green light to kill more people then they already did.Hegel is not dumb enough or gullable enough to express the inane view that to make the deaths of american soldiers worth it-we should stay in a war. Ridiculous.That is probably the dumbest belief the brainwashed by Fox war mongers gulls-love to regurgitate.
  
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- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:42pm
  POSER-ELLEN
  You CLEARLY do not know, nor understand PTSD. I have had a taste of what PTSD is like and it’s NOT fun. I’m sure what soldiers go through is worse than what I have experienced.
  There is anger, yes, but not because they couldn’t kill more people, only a moron, ass-hat would say something like that. PTSD is more like grief and comes in stages of anger, anxiety, depression, nightmares, flashbacks, sometimes hearing voices.
  When it happened to me, I was really angry for about 6 months. I was ready to fight 5-6 people on the side of the road. The anxiety that hits you in the morning when you wake up, makes you want to hide from the world, and saps your confidence. I have had nightmares of the accident that almost killed me, and flashbacks from seeing certain images. The bad part is that Ohio’s Worker’s Comp will not even recognize that I have PTSD, nor will pay for me to see a neurologist, even though I clearly had a brain injury (I was knocked out for four days). The hospital only took an x-ray of my skull, they never did an MRI to see if there was any brain damage.
  Please research PTSD, retroactive amnesia, traumatic brain injury (TBI) before your make ignorant statements such as the one you made. You really make yourself look more like a fool than you already are.
  
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spfoam1
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 2:59pm
I truly believe that democrats intentionally walk away from wars and conflicts before they are won, throwing away the lives lost, for the sole purpose of pointing a finger later and saying “we never should have been there”…..”see how bad war is”……”we told you so”…..”we knew better than get involved”, and so on. They do this regardless of the conflict, even if we are acting in self-defense. It is American to WIN, and the democrats have done all they can to take that from us.

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- The_Veteran
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:29pm
  What I just love seeing is how people will demand that we continue to wage a war because we need to insure that we win for the sake of all those lives we lost. So, you want to continue to sacrifice more men and women simply because you want to feel good about it? You want to go to bed at night knowing that “We Won” even though another 1000, 2000 or 3000 more lives will be lost? What really gets under my skin is those that want to wage war, but not with their own lives or their children and those that happily send their children. What the hell is wrong with you people? For the record, I am a Veteran and I am not a Democrat, but I am a Patriot that knows when wars should be fought. Definitely not for nation building as we have done for over 10 yrs in Afghansitan.
  
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- spfoam1
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:01pm
  No, you misunderstand me. If we are to go to war, then win it. We blend nation building with war, and that mix always fails. Win the war so there is no opposition, then nation building is not a bloody drawn out battle. Troops on the ground that are forced to follow political rules of engagement are called targets, and that is where we needlessly spill blood. In the case of Afghanistan, we annihilated them from the air, with a handful of ground support, and then turned to “winning hearts and minds”. We seem to be more worried about offending the enemy populations, than killing our own troops. If they are our enemy, and we have to fight them, then we should hammer them all until they surrender unconditionally. When the population fears for thier very survival, they change thier minds. What happened to winning? Winning does not mean proving that we can spill blood for more years than they can, it means that we can spill enough of their blood to make them surrender. Semper Fi.
- rose-ellen
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:35pm
  When you’re fighting the people of a country-like viet nam and like afghanistan-there is no surrender. Unlike japan and germany where we were fighting a military regime and if you got the leader-emperor or general to surrender-the troops surrendered with him and that was the end of that conflict.When you’re fighting -not a regime with its military-but the people themselves-the civilian people themselves-then like vietnam and like afghanistan-there is no “surrender”. as long as there are people.You’re still talking about your days of glory when victory could be had by defeating an army!.Since world war 2-we’re been fighting the people -not regimes with their militaries. This is the peoples century-not the century of nation states with their top down militarized regimes. It was launced by osama -whose loyalty was not to any regime[puppets of the west or as in syria or the fomer ussr] but to the oppressed by dictators- people.The people of afghanistan do not want to be occupied and invaded and they have the moral right to resist.
  
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- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:05pm
  Yes, I’m SURE the Afghans just LOVED being occupied, terrorized, and brutalized by the Taliban.
  From the posts of yours, I have read for the past year, you don’t seem to be an American and have a real hate for the American military.
  One wonders if the FBI is monitoring anything you say on these forums and keeping a file on you.
  
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- spfoam1
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:24pm
  @rose-ellen…..You are obviously a muslim. You are telling me there is no way to win against muslims unless we kill you all, because you will never surrender. I happen to agree with you. I believe your words. I think we are wasting our time and blood trying to change your minds, and all our ground troops should come home. Muslims started this fight, long ago, and we have definitely tried very hard to convince you to stop, and you won’t, so I think it’s ultimatum time. Change your minds, or die. The next time we are attacked we should bring out the big guns and use them on Mecca and Medina, changing them into places where no one lives and no one can visit for a few thousand years. How’s that for a start? We should give you the same deal you give us.
  
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- rose-ellen
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:33pm
  The taliban ARE the people of afghanistan. Some afghans support them-some don’t. but like viet nam-most afghans don’t support the invaders[whether american or russian].We terrorize the people too andmany american generals have acknowledged that we should negotiate with the taliban as they are viewed by many afghans as their defenders-as backward as they are].The fbi-may be monitoring me for my expressed beliefs against american militarism [the worlds biggest terrorist organization on earth] -you say? Wow-spoken like a real 21tc americkan!
  
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- rose-ellen
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:42pm
  You’re a 21stc anti-semitic genocidist [against muslims this time].Looks like osama was right about you gullable right wing americans. Hence his was indeed a defensive war[against genocidists like yourself].Oh-I’m catholic not muslim .But muslims are the least of my brethren-in these times so i defend them.The good news is for all the Fox war mongering propaganda against muslims-they’re still there- a billion of them -doing their thing and the elites in our government keep you fox gulls in check.
  
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- rose-ellen
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:58pm
  And they believe we started warring with them-first by imposing colonial divisons which benefitted us but harmed them,and then by imposing brutal dictators and of course by imposing european zionist settlers which also harmed them. osama supported the uprisings against all dictators and had we not invaded iraq-the people there probably would have risen up to topple saddam too. Osama was actually a natural ALLY of the west-as he was NOT a fundamentalist muslim but wanted to liberate his people [muslim identified was their primary identification as the political divisions were imposed by the west] from all oppressors-whether the saudi royals or other dictators and we backed these dictators-Hence he opposed us. He died believing in his heart of hearts that he did not start this war-we did with our unjust meddling[propping up dictators for cold war benefits and below market oil prices and one sided support of euopean zionist colonization].He supported the peoples uprisings against dictators.He was a freedom fighter but you manipulated fox gulls are given a false narrative. hence you now have to tell yourselves that the syrians rising up against a brutal assad-must all be islamists- to keep your[Fox's] narrative going that we should support dictators.The reality on the ground there keeps confounding you fox fed gulls who want genocide against muslims-israel needs more land.
  
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