BILLINGS, MONT. — Barack Obama told Montana veterans today that the country was not “doing right” by them and vowed to get veterans better health care when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Only hours before foreign policy took center stage in the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Obama, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, asked 250 people gathered in a lakeside park here to honor Republican John McCain’s service in the U.S. Navy, but to look at his policies, not his service, when voting in November.
“He served in uniform with honor and distinction. We owe him gratitude for that,” Obama said about McCain, an Arizona senator and one-time prisoner of war. “But we don’t owe him our vote. Because the stakes are too high.”
Montana has one of the country’s highest number of veterans per capita.
Obama’s remarks came a few hours before he lands in Denver, where he will accept the Democratic nomination tomorrow.
He received a good amount of applause when he said the Iraq war “should never have been authorized.” And when he told veterans that he “thought the one thing we all agreed to was when our troops come home that they would be treated with the honor and respect that they deserve. The fact is those hundreds of thousands of troops returning home are not getting what they need. It’s heartbreaking.”
Karen Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
