. >>> joining us now is tom tarantino, chief policy officer for iraq and afghanistan veterans of america non-partisan organization i support. tom, thank you very much for being here. appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> is it your experience as a veteran and working with vets that post-9/11 veterans are specifically being targeted by for-profit schools? >> absolutely. this is largely because of loopholes created before the g.i. bill actually existed that classified the g.i. bill as private funding. we have controls on for-profit schools so they don't abuse the system, so they have some element of free market control that says we can have 90% of your revenue can come from the federal government, but 10% has to come from customers who want to buy your product. in terms of business, it's kind of the best deal going, but because of a loophole, that 10%, the g.i. bill falls in that 10% of private dollars, so do d.o.d. tuition assistance benefits. so that means for every veteran or military member that a for-profit school can recruit, that's nine more people on federal fin

. >> tom tarantino, deputy policy director of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, also served in look at the numbers, it's 84,000 u.s. service members, still in afghanistan, yet we've been covering the trail on both sides, the campaign trail. not a lot said here when it comes to afghanistan. why do we need reminding? why the silence? >> well, first of all, you know, our hearts go out to the young men, the men and women who died today. you know, we just -- we just had this stark reminder that there are men and women in harm's way and it's a shame that we shouldn't have to have a tragedy like the helicopter crash today or the secretary of defense publicly reminding us that we are a nation at war. and that's largely because we are a very small population. iraq and afghanistan veterans are less than 1% of the american population. and we have born the brunt of the war in the last ten years. and i think it's important that not just on the campaign trail, but also in our homes that we understand that men and women are fighting for us. they're fighting for us overseas and they're continu

. >> tom tarantino, chief policy officer for iraq and afghanistan veteran with america, thanks for helping us to understand this tonight. >> we've got a best new thing in the world. emphasis on "best" and "world" coming up. lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. >> i love the associated press. you love the associated press. whether or not you are aware of somehow much you love them, the fact is if you're at all a news junky, if you're reading over the course of your particular day, you are basically marinating in "associated press" content all day long. the a.p. is everywhere and jointly owned by the american news organizations who use their stuff. that means thousands of newspapers and radio stations, they have hundreds of news bureaus all over the world, news staff all over the world. they're the only organization, for examp

now another outside observer here at the 2012 republican convention, and he is iraq war veteran, tom tarantinoterms of afghanistan, and we talked about this before and i talked to the folks in the pentagon and there's been a remarkable dearth of conversation when it comes to afghanistan specifically in this campaign. do you agree with me on that first? >> yes. we have not talked about the wars in any way, shape or form. >> we will talk about the war right now. >> from what i understand both mitt romney and president obama see the troop drawdown by the end of 2014 and they're on the sammy page there, but do you see a remarkable difference between the two when it comes to this war on substance? >> well, no because not right now because we haven't heard anything substantive from them. >> that's the problem? >> we don't know. there may not be any daylight between them and they might be miles apart, but because they haven't talked about the war and military issues and they haven't talked about what we'll do when veterans come home we don't know. all we have is their individual records as the presid

. >> tom tarantino, thank you so much. thank you for being with me. it has been incredible being at the center of the republican convention. huge, huge coverage, obviously, tonight beginning at:00. wolf blitzer and the rest of the political a-team covering mitt romney, and the myriad of speeches tonight from the forum. speaking of mr. blitzer, let's go to him live in tampa. your "situation room" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> you're looking at live pictures from the convention floor. that's the presidential and vice presidential team right there and you're looking at mitt romney and paul ryan to take a look, and of course, we'll be delivering a huge, hge speech tonight. it's his acceptance speech and he's taking a look at the podium and taking a look at the floor and getting a sense of this tampa bay times forum. there they are. the republican presidential nominee and the vice presidential nominee, paul ryan. paul ryan delivering his acceptance speech last night getting pretty positive reviews although there were some quest