The following excerpts are taken from the statement released by Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and the Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), in response to Mr. Bush's State of the Union address last week:
"Tonight [Mr. Bush] once again failed to demonstrate a real commitment to the 1.6 million new American veterans who have been created under his watch. For the second year in a row, [Mr. Bush] in his State of the Union address chose to mention the troops only as a prop for his failing policies and ignored the nation's new veterans entirely."
"[Mr. Bush], this nation's new veterans and this new Congress will together rewrite the book on our approach to veterans' services and we'll do it with or without your help. Tonight you demonstrated your willingness to send more troops into harm's way. A demonstration of your commitment to preserving this nation's promise to its veterans is long overdue."
The IAVA is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the civilian supporters of those individuals. More importantly, the organization is non-partisan, criticizing both Republicans and Democrats alike. The subject matter of Rieckhoff's statements is definitely one of the main reasons for people being opposed to sending more troops to Iraq. Aside from the numerous lies perpetrated as justification for invading Iraq in the first place, the Bush administration has appeared to be extremely casual and flippant on multiple occasions when it comes to U.S. casualties suffered during the war.
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