{"id":94117,"date":"2026-05-29T02:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/sen-susan-collins-platners-decision-to-go-to-war-he-was-not-drafted\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:42:35","slug":"sen-susan-collins-platners-decision-to-go-to-war-he-was-not-drafted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/sen-susan-collins-platners-decision-to-go-to-war-he-was-not-drafted\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Susan Collins: &#8220;Platner&#8217;s Decision&#8221; To Go To War, &#8220;He Was Not Drafted&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins responded to Democratic challenger Graham Platner, who said she made a mistake when she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2026\/05\/28\/graham_platner_susan_collins_voted_to_send_me_to_iraq.html\">&#8220;voted to send him to Iraq.&#8221;<\/a>  &#8220;First of all, he not only enlisted twice &#8211;after the war was started&#8211; but he also went to work for a security company, a controversial one named Blackwater, after his term in the service was over,&#8221; Collins said when asked by someone with <a href=\"https:\/\/mainewire.carrd.co\/\">The Maine Wire<\/a>.  &#8220;The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me, who are frankly still the same people who are sending people off right now to be in harm&#8217;s way so we can have this stupid war with Iran,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2026\/05\/28\/graham_platner_susan_collins_voted_to_send_me_to_iraq.html\">Platner told the New York Times in an interview this month<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Senator Collins responds to the scurrilous claim from Graham Platner that she sent him to &#8220;die in Iraq.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was Platner&#8217;s decision to serve. He was not drafted.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3hyPjxkfyn\">pic.twitter.com\/3hyPjxkfyn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheMaineWire\/status\/2060030001542561999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>   Sen. Collins said: &#8220;I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country, but the fact is, that was Platner&#8217;s decision to serve. He was not drafted.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The comments came at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Auburn Public Safety Building, which Collins secured $  2.5 million in financing for back in 2022. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oVVQ6pg9RC\">pic.twitter.com\/oVVQ6pg9RC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheMaineWire\/status\/2060030568830583021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2026\/05\/28\/susan_collins_platners_decision_to_go_to_war_he_was_not_drafted.html\">RealClearPolitics Videos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins responded to Democratic challenger Graham Platner, who said she made a mistake when she &#8220;voted to send him to Iraq.&#8221; &#8220;First of all, he not only enlisted twice &#8211;after the war was started&#8211; but he also went to work for a security company, a controversial one named Blackwater, after his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4514,3722,7780,29317,12844,7160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}