Jackson Free Press

Mary Lynn F. Jones writes on Alternet: that Kerry has strong appeal with veterans, who could swing the election. Kerry is finally giving Vietnam veterans a platform. "They're eating it up because no one has ever done it before," says Douglas Brinkley, the author of "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War." Kerry has promised to be a "veteran's veteran" if elected. But he also has more going for him besides the appeal of electing a decorated serviceman. Many veterans are also unhappy about the Iraq war. Bobby Muller, who heads the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and has endorsed Kerry, says, "We're hearing from so many of our guys that might traditionally be conservative guys [that] the war in Iraq has really pissed them off."

He points out that the war strikes especially close to home for Vietnam vets: "For the overwhelming majority of Vietnam veterans, having gone to war was the most significant experience in their lives, as it clearly has been for Kerry." Watching the conflict in Iraq "brings back an awful lot of bad memories of another failed war."

There are other reasons veterans are unhappy with Bush. Reserve officers resent being stuck with extended tours of duty because the military is stretched so thin. Older veterans are irate that the president ignored their needs in his budget. Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Commander-in-Chief Edward S. Banas, Sr. blasted Bush's 2005 budget as "further [evidence] that veterans are no longer a priority with this administration." He called the 1.8 percent increase in veteran's medical care funding "a disgrace and a sham."

As The American Legion's Thomas succinctly puts it, the budget "offered much for defense [but] offered very little for the defenders."