Jay Inslee: “the sad fact is that our proud men and women are not being treated with adequate dignity and respect when they come…”

“the sad fact is that our proud men and women are not being treated with adequate dignity and respect when they come back, and some do not come back from Iraq. There are a thousand frustrations that we have been hearing across the Districts. Let me just give you one. I think it is typical of what happened, a small instance. I have been working with the family of a soldier who was killed. He drowned in the Tigris River while trying to save an Iraqi policeman when they were on patrol. He died a hero in the service of his country. We tried to get his brother in from the Philippines to go to his funeral. You would not think that would be too much to ask when a man gave his life for his country and his family lost a husband and a son for their family. We could not even get the State Department to let his brother in for the funeral of this American soldier. Now, this was incompetence of the highest order.”