John Kerry demeaned U.S. soldiers fighting over in Iraq when he called them uneducated at a California fundraiser yesterday,

"Kerry's remarks are a left-wing, elitist insult to all those who volunteer to serve-pure and simple," says Flagg Youngblood, a former Army Captain, graduate of Yale, and current Program Officer for Young America's Foundation.

"The days of the radical 1960's are long gone, just like the draft. The myths about the military that the Left told then need to die now, once and for all."

A member of the Colorado National Guard who has served in Iraq said he was also insulted by comments made by Sen. John Kerry.

"I was angered at first," MSgt. Benjamin Irvin, a member of the Colorado National Guard, said, according to CBS4 in Denver, "Disgusted that someone of his stature could say something like that, especially being a veteran himself."

Speaking to a group of students at Pasadena City College, the Massachusetts Senator said, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

That, Kerry said, was meant as a reference to US President Bush, not troops.

Later, Kerry said the comment in question was "a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops ... and they know that's what I was talking about."

Kerry's spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said the senator prepared another remark: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

Bush called Kerry's statement "insulting and shameful" and said soldiers deserve an apology from Kerry.

"The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology," Bush said during an appearance Tuesday for a former GOP congressman, Mac Collins.

According to December 2005 Department of Defense report, over 90% of military recruits have a high school diploma.