As governor when I visited our troops in Kuwait and Iraq I served them Thanksgiving dinner. It was a small gesture compared to their sacrifice.

Ceremonies are important. But our gratitude has to be more than visits to the troops and once-a-year Memorial Day ceremonies. We honor the dead best by treating the living well.

Conventional wisdom holds that setting a timetable for getting American troops out of Iraq would be a mistake.

And of course in the Philippines there were so many thousands of Americans that were captured by the Japanese and held and who were rescued by Filipino Americans or Filipinos I should say and by U.S. troops near the close of the war.

How do you tell troops who volunteered to fight for our freedoms that the country they fought for won't take care of them when they come back? In the time of war our troops and their families are supposed to be our number one priority.

Bush's war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States. It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of our armed forces. Our troops were trained to project overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties.

For the sake of the troops for the love of the troops we must not add yet another casualty to this war. We must not let truth be a casualty of this war.

I want to start my own airplane business. I'm going to buy two Dakotas paint them up in war colours and do er nostalgia trips to Arnhem - you know where the old paratroopers used to go - and charge them about 20 quid a time.

I've been giving free money seminars for the troops at Walter Reed Hospital and one of the Iraqi War Vets realized that the military wouldn't pay for the dental work he needed.

America's veterans and troops serving abroad today fought hard to preserve our red white and blue from the Revolutionary War to today's Global War Against Terrorism and Congress' action today is appropriate for one of our most sacred symbols.