An Iowa legislator spent some time talking with President Bush today (Friday) about the war in Iraq. Chuck Larson is a state senator from Cedar Rapids and also a major in the U.S. Army Reserve. Larson founded a group called “Families United for Our Troops and their Mission” and that’s why he was in Washington, D.C. He says 15 organizations met with the President for about an hour in the Oval Office to talk about “the importance of the mission in Iraq and the war on terror.” Larson, who is a Republican, says Bush isn’t letting the negative things being said about the war get to him.
Larson says Bush is the type of person who knows what he believes and has made a decision and is going to follow that decision to the end. Larson says there have been ups and downs in Iraq, but he says the U.S. needs to stay the course and complete the mission, and that’s one of the things he discussed with Bush.
Larson’s group has families who’ve lost loved ones in the war and veterans and he says they try to spread the story of the positive things happening in Iraq.
He says they have chapters in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Michigan, Louisiana and this month in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Larson says the people who have lost sons or daughters in the war — “Gold Star Families” — are “the voice of their fallen heroes.” Larson says Families United has nearly three-thousand members, of which 300 are Gold Star family members.