MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Welcome Home Parade for Iraq War Veterans

Interview

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MADDOW: Joining us tonight for the interview is Senator Charles Schumer of New York.

Senator Schumer, thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it.

SCHUMER: Good evening.

MADDOW: We have talked about the issue a long time.

SCHUMER: You have. You`re one of the -- you are one of the prime people who has pushed this to happen. It`s great.

MADDOW: Well, it has -- it has been an interesting conundrum to me that we didn`t do something to mark the end of the Iraq war in this country.

SCHUMER: Now, they did try. There were two councilmen from Staten Island who called for this. They needed the city`s cooperation. Mayor Bloomberg, and I don`t begrudge him. Called up DOD. They said until combat is ended in both Iraq and Afghanistan, which they regarded as interrelated conflicts because many people who served in Iraq went to serve in Afghanistan and vice versa, that they shouldn`t do it.

Now, the president called for combat to end by the end of 2014. Hagel seconded this. So, now is the time to get moving and prepare and do the great parade that New York can do down the Canyon of Heroes. I talked to DOD. And -- they, you know, they`re, they`re the bureaucracy of bureaucracies, and they`re jumping through 100 hoops. But they have been very positive.

MADDOW: There was this. New York is New York. No other city in the country is New York. And the Canyon of Heroes is its own thing in terms of having a place where we have national recognition.

But all of these other cities, sort of ignored what the Defense Department was saying. And, and, went ahead with. I wonder, how does that influence the decision making about what to do here?

SCHUMER: Well, I think they did their own parade. They didn`t have the cooperation of DOD. I mean, if we have the cooperation, we can have the top military brass come. We can have flyovers. We can have all kind of military bands and everything else. It will be a grand, grand parade.

So, the other parades were good. But to give these women and men who served us and risked their lives for us, the recognition they deserve, there is nothing like a parade in the Canyon of Heroes with the full support of our nation`s Defense Department and all extra things that that entails.

MADDOW: The history that weighs heavily here for me at least looking back at previous parade in the Canyon of Heroes is the Vietnam War, another very uncomfortable conflict for the nation, in terms of the political issues that it raised and also a very unpopular conflict, the war in Iraq and to a lesser extent, the war in Afghanistan, have also been unpopular. But in Vietnam, that translated to difficulties for veterans coming home.

SCHUMER: Yes.

MADDOW: And there was no parade for more than 10 years.

SCHUMER: Ten years and that was wrong. If people disagreed with the policies, and I think there was probably as much disagreement with Iraq as with Vietnam, but you don`t take it out on these people, particularly the Vietnam dates.

They were drafted. They served. They served noble and well.

I think if someone asked me, why was it different? You know, one of the nice things about the Iraq war, for a lot of not nice things about it - - is that the soldiers have been treated well from the beginning. Congress did unite to improve health benefits. A G.I. bill was re-enacted, so they can afford college.

Many of them, of course were, older. They were reservists, national guards people who left their families to go, who left their jobs to go. Not just fresh out of high school or college. While many more were in Vietnam.

And so, there was a different view. Why was it different? Vietnam, Iraq.

I think, I -- cut my political eye teeth protesting the Vietnam War when I was, you know, in college. There was just so much anger at the establishment in Vietnam that it boiled over unfortunately into the veterans as almost symbols of the establishment.

In Iraq, people thought the war was wrong. But there wasn`t the same hostility to the whole way America was going. Vietnam was sort of an awakening to a lot of people.

MADDOW: What about the issue of paying for a large scale welcome home event? Obviously, it`s going to take a lot of money.

SCHUMER: It will take some money. We`ll figure that out. The mayor has been involved.

Look, we pay for parade for athletes. I think that`s a great thing. I love the Yankees and Giants parades.

MADDOW: Yes.

SCHUMER: I know. I know. But there were no Mets. No Dodgers, no Jets when I was a kid. So, those were the teams. I stuck with them.

But -- we can pay for this. And I have talked to Mayor de Blasio, he is fully on board. And a lot of the veterans` organizations want to chip in, in all kind of different ways.

So, I think paying for it went be the hard part. It`s getting it organized. And we`ll have to figure out when we can do it. We will wait with DOD`s wishes, until combat is declared over.

It would be nice if that happened in, in September. You know, given these elections. Maybe that can happen, because they will be quicker to sign an agreement. Karzai was resisting an agreement. We can do it on Veterans Day. What a great thing that would be.

MADDOW: Senator Charles Schumer of New York -- as I said, we covered the story for a long time.

SCHUMER: And you have done a great job. Kudos, kudos.

MADDOW: Thank you. This is the first progress we`ve been able to report in a long time. Congratulations, sir.

SCHUMER: Good to see you. Thanks for your good work.

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