With talks of the U.S. sending more troops to Iraq in the coming days and months, four Iraq War veterans joined HuffPost Live on Tuesday to discuss the matter. One point was clear: they are all against more soldiers on the ground for what could be attributed to "pride."
"I don't want men and women dying for dumb causes," veteran Ruben Gallego told host Ricky Camilleri. "I also don't want American men and women dying in uniform because of pride. That's all this is. It's a bunch of people that were wrong about the Iraq War that are trying to put more blood on their hands to save pride."
Iraq is currently in a state of disarray, as the government is trying to fight ISIS -- a militant group -- to keep control of the country. Many have called for the U.S. to send more troops to aid the fledgling Iraqi government, something President Obama has resisted.
According to the Associated Press, a 300-troop surge Tuesday increased the American presence in Iraq to 750 soldiers at the moment. The increase was only to protect embassies, Obama said, and not an effort to send combat troops back to the country. Obama said the security troops will stay until security improves.
Each veteran on the segment dismissed the notion that American soldiers should feel responsible for the stabilization of Iraq.
"I dismiss that rhetoric right away. I don't listen to it," John Bruhns, who also served in Iraq, said. "To me, what President Bush had us do was stay in Iraq indefinitely and fight an unidentifiable enemy. I understand why some on the right have a concern that this is going to blow up or maybe even spread throughout the region. But this is something they did."
Watch the rest of the clip above, and catch the entire HuffPost Live conversation here.
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