Members of the VFP Phoenix Chapter are asking Senator John S. McCain to SAY NO to War in Ukraine & Fund the VA, Not the Pentagon. The demonstration and delivery of the letter will take place @ the Office of Senator John S. McCain, 2201 E. Camelback Rd., Suite 115, Phoenix, AZ 85016 on May 23rd 4pm-5pm. Press release and letter below.
Press Release from VFP Phoenix Chapter 75
For Immediate Release
May 19, 2014
For more information:
Richard A. Smith 602-717-3066
Edwina Vogan 480-620-5323
Say No to McCain’s War in Ukraine & Fund the VA, Not the Pentagon
Phoeniz, AZ. Members of the Phoenix Winter Solider Chapter of Veterans For Peace (WSCVFP) and the End the War Coalition (ETWC) will deliver a letter to, and conduct a demonstration at the office of Senator John S. McCain on Friday, May 23rd from 4pm – 5pm. The letter demands that Senator McCain publicly repudiate his advocacy of a foreign policy based solely on warmongering. It further demands that McCain account for his double talk in which he claims to be the veterans’ friend then votes against legislation to adequately fund the Department of Affairs (VA).
It’s time for John McCain to end his advocacy of a foreign policy based solely on warmongering. Time and again, beginning with his shilling for the ill-advised and illegal invasion of Iraq, and continuing through his drumbeat urging President Obama to use military force against Libya, Iran, Syria, and now, the Ukraine, Senator McCain consistently and wrongheadedly chooses aggression and war over diplomacy and peace. Indeed, Senator McCain’s recent pronouncements demonstrate that he is neither a statesman nor a friend of veterans. To the contrary, Moreover, John McCain is the worst kind of politician. At the first sign of a foreign policy crisis, McCain impulsively rushes in front of TV cameras and demands that President Obama initiate acts of war against McCain’s latest designated “enemy.” Senator McCain’s behavior is all the more reprehensible when one considers that as a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton, he witnessed first-hand, the brutal consequences of war.
Finally, his recent appearances in front of local TV cameras, in which he expressed faux outrage over the Phoenix VA hospital’s alleged misconduct, in the deaths of 40 patients, collapses under the weight of his votes in the Senate to cut funding for the VA. The citizens and veterans of Arizona deserve better than John McCain.
Hand Delivered Letter to Senator John S. McCain
Richard A. Smith, Esq.
5122 N.12th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85013
May 23, 2014
Re: Veterans Affairs Funding
HAND DELIVERED
The Honorable Senator John S. McCain
2201 E. Camelback Rd., Suite 115
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Dear Senator McCain:
I write today on behalf of the (Phoenix) Winter Soldier Chapter of Veterans for Peace (WSCVFP) and the End the War Coalition to request that you repudiate your continuing role as this country’s most visible and preeminent warmonger, and explain your Senate votes described below, in which you voted against funding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Beginning with your support of President Bush’s ill-advised and illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, you have continually and unrelentingly urged President Obama to use military force against Libya, Iran, Syria, and now, the Ukraine. Your insistence in choosing aggression and war, over diplomacy and peace, is unbecoming for a member of the United States Senate. Thus, you should repudiate this reprehensible conduct immediately and publicly.
Allegations have surfaced recently that up to 40 patients of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Hospital (Hospital) may have died as a result of the Hospital’s severe understaffing. In light of two of your most recent votes against VA funding legislation, I request that you reconcile your recent outrage regarding these allegations with your voting record that demonstrates that you are complicit in the VA’s chronic underfunding and, as a result, its understaffing.
Accordingly, we demand that you explain the rationale behind the following “No” votes related to the VA’s funding, to wit:
1. On March 20, 2013, you voted against the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 933). That legislation would have appropriated $60.60 billion to the Department of Veteran Affairs for activities that included, but were not limited to, the payment of compensation benefits, pension benefits, and burial benefits.
2. On May 27, 2010, you voted against the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill (HR-4899).
I look forward to a response at your earliest convenience.
Very truly yours,
Richard A. Smith, Esq.
FTG3 USN (‘65-’69)
Disabled Veteran
WSCVFP Spokesperson and
NLRB Field Attorney (retired)
Phoenix Regional Office
(1995-2010)