Iraq Veterans Critical of Dem. front-runners, and support only Senator Biden.?

Seven veterans of the Iraq war wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Des Moines Register. In the letter, they roundly criticize Clinton, Obama, Dodd, Edwards and Richardson, for putting their own ambitions ahead of protecting American lives, while coming out squarely behind Joe Biden. Putting his own political interests aside, Senator Biden broke ranks with his Democrat colleagues and voted for providing the Mine Resitant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles that will reduce casualties from IEDs by 80 percent. Read the letter and please give your opinion of how this will likely effect the Democratic nomination. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070819/OPINION04/708190330/1038&GID=oKAPhqEqZQAxu8GdyCJz4VFqFAtmdfhgZgWwLOFNwXM%3D As to why our troops were sent to war without the proper equipment, let's all remember that, of all the Democrats now running for President, only Hillary Clinton sat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Hillary never raised the issue because she had conducted a poll. And she never opens her mouth without poll numbers. Also remember that, in order to make it virtually impossible for the Democrats to do anything in regard to the war, the Republicans, while they still controlled the senate, passed a rule that requires 60 votes to pass any defense bill.

Public Comments

1. Seven whole individual express an opinion, and this is an issue? Get serious. If that justifies a position, how does that make the millions who oppose the Bush regime look? Americans will make their minds up based on more than a badly run foreign adventure. We are more concerned with the spiralling deficit, the widening gap between the haves and the have nots, and the total lack of a decent public health system. Biden is a good man, and might make an excellent President. It will take a lot more than one issue to get him to the nomination, especially an issue that will be a nonissue the minute our troops come home.
2. Pleas take the opinion of Vietnam veterans whether they would have ever supported the Iraq War at all?
3. Ron Paul(retired Air force captain)has more money from active servicemen and women in the armed forces than any other candidate because he wants the troops out of Iraq but it really hasnt made his support rise or fall because the troops actually support him -
4. These veterans have their right to speak and their voice be heard. I think that they have earned the right to speak and be heard. I am also a veteran, and have more time in the sand than 16 months. I disagree with some of the things they are saying. The availability of these vehicles were known at the beginning of the war. To blame presidential candidates is about as crazy as knowingly stepping on a live mine. Funding for the vehicles could have been done LONG ago...under republican rule. By the way, the last congress, which was republican ran, left without making a move on a stack of bills that would have benefitted the troops. Where is the reaction to this? Yet, they are the ones soooo in it for the troops. but continued follow behind the president like an obedient pet. Why did troops have to canabolize military wreckage in order to up armor vehicles? Why was the first wave of deploying troops sent to battle without proper equipment? Where is the outrage concerning Halliburton getting no-bid contracts totalling into the 10s of BILLIONS of dollars? If these vehicles are so good and desperately needed (which they are both), then why not a no-bid contract to the company(s) that makes them? A separate bill could have been written to cover the cost of the vehicles....specifically. Other military hardware of priority are not attached to other bills. All sorts of 'pork' was added to the bill that didn't even pertain to the military. There were even attempts to add subsidies for farmers, just to name one. Again, a separate bill was needed. If we were not sent to Iraq, we wouldn't even be discussing this. If enough troops were sent, since we are already there, then maybe this war would not be dragging on for so long, and insurgents wouldn't have been able to setup shop and deploy IEDs. To say presidential candidates don't have the troops in mind is crazy. We all have not only up until election day, but up to the mooment we actually cast our ballot to make a decision. Thiis moment is a LONG way off. A lot of things can be said and done by all of the candidates before then. To consider Senator Biden for one bill he voted on is crazy. Maybe if he had voted with the other candidates, and then reintroduced the bill to fund the MRAPs, I would seriously consider casting my vote for him. "But we cannot imagine a future commander in chief who would put us in unnecessary danger for even one day. And this is what most of these candidates did by voting against MRAP funding." I don't think any of the candidates would have sent troops to Iraq in the first place. I think Barak Obama is one of the few that didn't vote in favor of the president, as far as the war is concerned. It is the current president that sent them/us to war in Iraq unprepared....along with the Secretary of Defense. So many claim it is a mistake to 'run'. What did Reagan do when the barracks was bombed? We withdrew our troops. What happened in Somalia after that incident (Blackhawk Down movie is based on)? Congress, Republican lead, withheld funding, forcing a removal of troops. WE 'RAN'!!! I wish my comrades, as well as their candidate much luck.