It was Graham Platner’s ‘decision to serve’ in Iraq, Collins says
Senator Susan Collins responded to Graham Platner for saying the Maine Republican “voted to send me to Iraq,” telling reporters, “that was Platner’s decision to serve.”
“He not only enlisted twice after the war was started, but he also went to work at a security company … after his term in the service was over,” Collins said of Platner, the Democrat whom she will face on the ballot for US Senate this fall.
The six-term senator was responding to a comment Platner made in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times published earlier this month. The oyster farmer and progressive first-time candidate served eight years in the military, including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Platner has said he opposes the Trump administration’s war against Iran and told the Times he has a complicated relationship with his years of service.
During the interview, Platner also pointed a finger at Collins, saying she “voted to send me to Iraq.” Collins voted in support of the 2002 Iraq War resolution during her first term under President George W. Bush, in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Platner enlisted into the Marine Corps in 2005.
“If I have any anger, it is reserved for the political system itself and the people in it who view war not as a thing that has a human toll but as a political game,” Platner told the Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
“I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country, but the fact is, that was Platner’s decision to serve,” Collins told reporters on Thursday, according to a clip of the exchange posted to social media by Axios reporter Alex Thompson. “He was not drafted.”
When reached for comment, Platner’s campaign directed the Globe to a press release from earlier Thursday, which accused Collins of dodging “accountability for sending Americans to fight in the forever war she voted for.”
“All these years later, instead of acknowledging that she was wrong, she’s decided that she’s going to blame those of us who, in our late teens and early 20s, signed up to serve our country,” Platner said in a statement.
Collins expressed support immediately after President Trump launched a military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28, and in March the Senator voted against a resolution to halt the war. But Collins broke with party leadership in April, the first Republican to do so, when the Senate took up the bill for a sixth time, voting in favor this time. The resolution finally passed the higher chamber of Congress last week.
Kaitlin Lewis can be reached at Kaitlin.Lewis@globe.com. Follow her on X @kblewey.