Iraq War Veterans Want Debate on Iraq, Not Vietnam
Thu Sep 2, 2004 02:36 PM ET
By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraq war veterans on the sidelines of the Republican convention say they are sick of the bickering over the Vietnam War records of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry and want a serious discussion of Iraq and veterans' issues instead.
"We want to force both candidates to give us some answers here," said Paul Rieckhoff, a platoon leader in Iraq and executive director of Operation Truth, which is lobbying to highlight the Iraq war as an election issue.
"Bush hasn't really given us a clear focus on how he's going to change things and Kerry hasn't given us a clear idea what he will do differently," he said.
Several veterans' groups descended on New York during the Republican convention that nominated Bush for a second term. The veterans are attending debates, doing media interviews and lobbying politicians to offer more specifics about what to do in Iraq, where almost 1,000 U.S. soldiers have died since the 2003
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6138357