STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here in the United States, we have another story about military service and service beyond the military. A group called With Honor calls itself cross-partisan. It encourages veterans to run for office. They’ve counted the number of vets running for federal office since 2018, and this year, more are running than ever, with the number of women running double what it was in 2024.
RYE BARCOTT: I think there is a desire to serve at a time when the country needs it. It’s a core part of the veteran ethos.
INSKEEP: Rye Barcott cofounded With Honor and wrote a new book, “Courage Can Save Us.” NPR’s veterans correspondent Quil Lawrence sat down with him.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Rye Barcott served in Fallujah, Iraq. He said he saw the difference between courage and bravery there. His gunnery sergeant – that’s a senior enlisted rank – was undoubtedly brave.
BARCOTT: He was extremely tactically proficient. He’d been in a lot of combat. A lot of Marines felt safer around him. But he started to go down this kind of moral rot and degradation. And the pressures of the war just built on him, and to the point where he wanted to essentially recruit a child to provide information about enemy locations.
LAWRENCE: But a lower-ranking sergeant had something else – courage.
BARCOTT: The sergeant refused to do that and came to me and told me about it. And we told the gunnery sergeant, no, that is – you’re not going to do it. You know, it’s a war crime. The courage there belonged with the sergeant.
LAWRENCE: No small thing, defying a well-respected soldier who outranked him in a war zone. Barcott’s pointing to the classical – he means ancient Greek – definition that bravery is physical, courage is moral, standing up for what’s right. Barcott has spent most of the past decade looking for similar courage in a place most Americans wouldn’t, Washington, D.C.
BARCOTT: What I’ve tried to do with this book is show that, hey, it does still exist. It is in shorter supply, but it is there. And as a country, we need to celebrate it.
LAWRENCE: Barcott profiled politicians who served, five from each party, who’ve shown courage both at war and in politics back home. That often meant going against your own party. One of the stories in the book is about another Marine, Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who was very critical during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Moulton even jumped on an unauthorized flight into Kabul.
BARCOTT: And he got a lot of criticism for that as well. You know, folks said, oh, well, he was showboating. But at that time, a lot of vets, myself included, respected the fact that these guys went over and basically tried to shine a light on a catastrophe that was playing out.
LAWRENCE: Barcott says it’s worth respecting that politicians face genuine risks from social media harassment to real acts of political violence. And it’s telling that several vets profiled in the book are leaving politics or have been pushed out.
BARCOTT: There’s an example of a Republican, Dan Crenshaw, in the book who ends up losing his primary race for a number of different reasons but including some of the positions that he took on issues like Ukraine, for example.
LAWRENCE: Crenshaw is a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye. He nearly lost both eyes in combat. He’s a conservative Texas Republican who supports President Trump except on a few issues, like defending Ukraine against Russia. For that, Crenshaw found himself targeted online. And he lost a primary challenge.
BARCOTT: They might lose their job, they might lose some friends, but they will do the right thing. Not everybody rises to the occasion, but there are many that are, and I’m glad to be focused on 10 that have at key moments.
LAWRENCE: Barcott says he’s not naive. But he hopes the record number of vets running for Congress this year can do what they did in the military, work alongside Americans of all stripes, despite many differences, for a common good.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
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