Call on Senator Kerry to apologize

WASHINGTON- Today, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-05) joined Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) to call on Senator John Kerry to apologize for his recent remarks about our brave troops who are fighting in Iraq. Brown-Waite, Kingston and 25 House Republicans sent the following letter:

Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kerry:

We are writing to express our outrage over your recent disrespectful and condescending comments concerning our brave troops in Iraq. We demand that you offer a clear and simple apology, without caveat or explanation, to America's finest.

In case you don't remember, you told a recent campaign audience, "You know education, if you make the most of it and you study hard and 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." We don't know how many of our soldiers you have met, but they are the best and brightest that our nation has to offer and unlike you, Senator, they do not believe they are "stuck in Iraq."

Senator Kerry, it is bad enough that you disparage their mission at every chance you get, that you ignore any signs of progress or hope, that like the mainstream media you focus only on the bad news and ignore the good news that American troops and their Iraqi allies are bringing to Iraqi families every day, and that you offer no alternatives and no plan for victory in Iraq or in the larger War on Terror. Sadly, this seems to have become a pattern: blame America first and disparage the men and women who serve so bravely in our defense.

We hope you will quickly and clearly apologize and in the future think about those who are in danger, so far away, so that we may remain free to exercise the freedoms here that they are bringing to millions of people over there.

Sincerely,

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL)
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL)
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN)
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX)
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO)
Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN)
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA)
Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI)
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)
Rep. John Peterson (R-PA)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY)
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL)
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK)
Rep. Mike Sodrel (R-IN)