*Bush, Republicans losing support of retired veterans*

[Sarah]

WASHINGTON -

President Bush and his Republican Party are facing a political
backlash from an unlikely group - retired veterans.

Normally Republican, many retired veterans are mad that Bush and the
Republican-controlled Congress are blocking remedies to two problems
with health and pension benefits. They say they feel particularly
betrayed by Bush, who appealed to them in his 2000 campaign, and who
vowed on the eve of his inauguration that "promises made to our
veterans will be promises kept."

"He pats us on the back with his speeches and stabs us in the back
with his actions," said Charles A. Carter of Shawnee, Okla., a
retired Navy senior chief petty officer. "I will vote non-Republican
in a heart beat if it continues as is."

"I feel betrayed," said Raymond C. Oden Jr., a retired Air Force Chief
Master Sergeant now living in Abilene, Texas.

Many veterans say they will not vote for Bush or any Republican in
2004 and are considering voting for a Democrat for the first time.
Others say they will sit out the election, angry with Bush and
Republicans but unwilling to support Democrats, whom they say are no
better at keeping promises to veterans. Some say they will still
support Bush and his party despite their ire.

While there are no recent polls to measure veterans' political
leanings, any significant erosion of support for Bush and Republicans
could hurt in a close election. It could be particularly troublesome
in states such as Florida that are politically divided and crowded
with military retirees.

Registered Republican James Cook, who retired to Fort Walton Beach,
Fla., after 24 years in the Air Force, said he is abandoning a party
that he said abandoned him. "Bush is a liar," he said. "The
Republicans in Congress, with very few exceptions, are gutless party
lapdogs who listen to what puts money in their own pockets or what
will get them re-elected."

[Steve]

Post by Sarah
WASHINGTON -
President Bush and his Republican Party are facing a political
backlash from an unlikely group - retired veterans.
Normally Republican, many retired veterans are mad that Bush and the
Republican-controlled Congress are blocking remedies to two problems
with health and pension benefits. They say they feel particularly
betrayed by Bush, who appealed to them in his 2000 campaign, and who
vowed on the eve of his inauguration that "promises made to our
veterans will be promises kept."

It's all the more funny when you think of the military people who voted fro
bush in Florida and helped put him in the White House so could get them
killed - while also cutting their veterans **health** benefits by $14
billion dollars.

Better not get wounded in Iraq, ya hear? Bush has cut your health benefits.
You can't afford to get wounded.

[Erik A. Mattila]

Post by Steve

Post by Sarah
WASHINGTON -
President Bush and his Republican Party are facing a political
backlash from an unlikely group - retired veterans.
Normally Republican, many retired veterans are mad that Bush and the
Republican-controlled Congress are blocking remedies to two problems
with health and pension benefits. They say they feel particularly
betrayed by Bush, who appealed to them in his 2000 campaign, and who
vowed on the eve of his inauguration that "promises made to our
veterans will be promises kept."

It's all the more funny when you think of the military people who voted fro
bush in Florida and helped put him in the White House so could get them
killed - while also cutting their veterans **health** benefits by $14
billion dollars.
Better not get wounded in Iraq, ya hear? Bush has cut your health benefits.
You can't afford to get wounded.

And especially avoid capture -
eam

-------------------------
U.S. Opposes Using Seized Iraqi Funds for POWs
Tue July 29, 2003 02:56 PM ET
By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday told a federal
judge it did not want to spend seized Iraqi funds to pay compensation to
17 Americans held as prisoners of war during the 1991 Gulf War.

Shannen Coffin, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice
Department, said the government preferred to spend the money on postwar
rebuilding in Iraq.

"It really is unthinkable that in the end that the reconstruction of
Iraq should be done on the backs of the POWs who were brutally tortured
(there)," said Stephen Fennell, attorney for the 17 former prisoners of
war and their families who are trying to recover the nearly $1 billion
in damages they were awarded earlier this month.

"We need to deter the continued torture of American POWs," he said.

more here:
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3180719