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WASHINGTON, Oct 31, 2006 - The national commander of America’s largest organization of combat veterans is calling for an apology from Sen. John Kerry, who told a group of college students yesterday that education is the key to keeping themselves out of Iraq.
“The senator was attempting levity and it backfired, big time,” said Gary Kurpius, the commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. “You don’t use troops as the butt of your jokes.”
The Massachusetts senator, who was speaking at Pasadena City College on behalf of the California democratic gubernatorial challenger, said: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
“Senator Kerry is a decorated Vietnam veteran and a fellow VFW member who differs with the president on the prosecution of the war, but that doesn’t give him carte blanche to use education as a weapon and our servicemen and women as his targets,” said Kurpius, who’s also a Vietnam veteran.
“There’s already a serious disconnect between the war’s impact on the general population and the 2.2 million who proudly serve in uniform,” he said. “Let’s not use politics to widen that gap.”
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