Paul Rieckhoff Quotations

With numbers this high, the problem is going to grow fast.

men and women of extraordinary courage and incredible capability. But it's time we had leadership in Washington to match that courage and match that capability.

policy that brings in the rest of the world and relieves their burden.

I don't expect an easy solution to the situation in Iraq. I do expect an admission that there are serious problems that need serious solutions. I don't expect our leaders to be free of mistakes, I expect our leaders to own up to them.

We need some leadership in Washington to recognize the pending threat of PTSD to veterans and our country as a whole. George Bush doesn't talk about mental health and he doesn't talk about veterans. Veterans' issues are not a big priority for him.

We're definitely looking at a wave of guys coming back who will want to run.

We saw firsthand the terrible suffering that they had endured. We protected a hospital and kept a school safe from sniper fire. We saw hope in the faces of Iraqi children who may have the chance to grow up as free as our own.

to secure Iraq and help the Iraqi people.

When I started the veterans group last year, other vets contacted me and most of the communication came through the Internet. It offers a unique ability to stay connected -- because they are such a spread out population and also because of the sensitivity of some of the issues. If you are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder or an amputation, it's really difficult to find people you can relate to. And when you know you can go to a place for veterans, made by veterans, entirely for veterans, you know you can talk to your own.

Everything's on the vet. It's on you to come forward, you to push the paper, you to seek the treatment.

The study confirms what we've heard from our members for the last two years -- that mental health issues and (post-traumatic stress disorder) are among the No. 1 issues facing Iraq veterans.

People should be paying attention to it, because I think it really could be the tip of the iceberg.

People don't feel comfortable getting mental health care, necessarily, because they're worried that their friends are going to think they're unstable or they're crazy.

Now I think the public opinion is starting to change, and people are understanding that the guys who've been in Washington don't seem to have a good handle on it,

The bottom line is that Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department are failing soldiers again.

It just became an accepted part of the culture. If you were National Guard or Reserve, or NCOs, noncommissioned officers, you were going to spend a lot of money out of your pocket.

It just became an accepted part of the culture,

I wanted to be able to call bullshit on some of these guys. OK, Bill O'Reilly, OK Al Franken: 'What do you really know about infantry tactics? 'Have you ever had to walk through bodies?

They continue to downplay the severity and the real size of the problem.

I don't think the Army is wrong by doing this, because the Army has to ensure some level of quality.

I don't expect our leaders to be free of mistakes, I expect our leaders to own up to them.

I get excited when fantasy football season's coming. This guy gets excited when war season's coming.

What we've also got to think about is the limitations of military power. Maybe it's time to focus on the economic issues, and most of all the political issues, because the political failure in Iraq right now is almost worse than the military failure. And the two are intertwined.