That's what a handful of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans asked John McCain and fellow GOP Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in two new ads VoteVets.org released this week to precede the Senate's consideration of the bipartisan 21st-century GI bill. The bill passed the Senate on Thursday as part of a larger war spending package that President Bush has threatened to veto.
The veterans in the ads --explain how-->claim that the --http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01409:"-->bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., offers them complete educational benefits, and they urge the senators to support it.
The ad targeting McCain and the one targeting Cornyn, who is facing a tough re-election challenge from Democrat Rick Noriega, are virtually identical, except the former --goes one step further to-->contends that a substitute bill McCain has introduced would only provide --veterans-->partial benefits. "McCain thinks covering a fraction of our education is enough," one of the veterans says. "We didn't give a fraction in Iraq," says another. "We gave 100 percent."
--Click http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/as_20080523_5797.php here for the ad targeting Cornyn.-->Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, continues to have high hopes for the Webb-Hagel bill.
"We'll consider any and all means we can to ensure that the president signs the bill, and if he doesn't, make sure that Congress knows that overriding a veto means supporting our troops," Soltz said. "It's that simple."