2 rivals rip Bush on Iraq
By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Register Staff Writer
Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Dick Gephardt used a national health-care forum in Des Moines on Thursday to rip the Bush administration's handling of issues related to the war in Iraq.
Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, blasted the administration following a news report that the Department of Defense recommended cutting pay for troops stationed in Iraq. The Pentagon said the news reports were inaccurate and said cutting pay for combat troops in the field was "ludicrous."
"It is the worst definition of patriotism and worst misplaced priorities to allow these soldiers to be subjected to anxiety and fear that their pay may be cut," Kerry said at the National Health Policy Council's health policy forum at Drake University.
Kerry was referring to a story Thursday in the San Francisco Chronicle that said uniformed Americans in Iraq face losing $75-a-month pay increases for working in imminent danger and $150-a-month increases for being away from their families. Unless Congress and the president act when they return from their August recesses, the cut will take effect Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
Defense Department officials said Thursday that the criticism was misguided.
While the Pentagon favors allowing the extra combat pay allowances to expire in September, it will ensure that overall compensation for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan remains stable by giving them other raises, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel David Chu said.
"We are simply not going to reduce their compensation. There's an open issue about how we are going to do that," Chu said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "We will at least maintain the compensation of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."
As President Bush visited Thursday in California with troops who recently returned from Iraq, Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, criticized the president for failing to use the occasion to call for United Nations or NATO support in postwar Iraq.
"We are losing people every day, we're having kids injured every day. This is a world problem," Gephardt said. "This president needs to go to the U.N. and to NATO right now and get America the help that we need."
Republican National Committee spokesman Chad Colby said Gephardt had no standing to criticize Bush's conduct of the war because Gephardt has missed the majority of his votes while campaigning for president, including votes on military spending and homeland security.
Kerry and Gephardt were among seven candidates vying for the 2004 Democratic nomination who attended the health policy forum at Drake's Sheslow Auditorium...
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By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Register Staff Writer
Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Dick Gephardt used a national health-care forum in Des Moines on Thursday to rip the Bush administration's handling of issues related to the war in Iraq.
Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, blasted the administration following a news report that the Department of Defense recommended cutting pay for troops stationed in Iraq. The Pentagon said the news reports were inaccurate and said cutting pay for combat troops in the field was "ludicrous."
"It is the worst definition of patriotism and worst misplaced priorities to allow these soldiers to be subjected to anxiety and fear that their pay may be cut," Kerry said at the National Health Policy Council's health policy forum at Drake University.
Kerry was referring to a story Thursday in the San Francisco Chronicle that said uniformed Americans in Iraq face losing $75-a-month pay increases for working in imminent danger and $150-a-month increases for being away from their families. Unless Congress and the president act when they return from their August recesses, the cut will take effect Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
Defense Department officials said Thursday that the criticism was misguided.
While the Pentagon favors allowing the extra combat pay allowances to expire in September, it will ensure that overall compensation for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan remains stable by giving them other raises, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel David Chu said.
"We are simply not going to reduce their compensation. There's an open issue about how we are going to do that," Chu said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "We will at least maintain the compensation of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."
As President Bush visited Thursday in California with troops who recently returned from Iraq, Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, criticized the president for failing to use the occasion to call for United Nations or NATO support in postwar Iraq.
"We are losing people every day, we're having kids injured every day. This is a world problem," Gephardt said. "This president needs to go to the U.N. and to NATO right now and get America the help that we need."
Republican National Committee spokesman Chad Colby said Gephardt had no standing to criticize Bush's conduct of the war because Gephardt has missed the majority of his votes while campaigning for president, including votes on military spending and homeland security.
Kerry and Gephardt were among seven candidates vying for the 2004 Democratic nomination who attended the health policy forum at Drake's Sheslow Auditorium...
Read More...
posted by Pamela J. Leavey at 6:26 PM
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