LEWISTON – John Kerry’s top campaign spokesman met Tuesday with a dozen fellow veterans at a private home here claiming President Bush is wasting American lives fighting the wrong war while cutting veterans’ services at home.

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, who lost an arm and two legs in a Vietnam War grenade explosion, sat in a suburban back yard in his wheelchair surrounded by mostly Vietnam veterans.

Cleland said Bush has overextended U.S. troops without galvanizing enough allies in a guerrilla war he likened to Vietnam. More than a year after the president declared “mission accomplished,” Americans continue to die and suffer injuries from hostile forces in Iraq, he said.

“It’s a chilling experience for those young Americans there exposed in that shooting gallery,” Cleland said. There are not enough troops to secure the Iraqi population, only enough to guard the profitable oil fields that were turned over to Halliburton, the company Vice President Cheney once directed. “Now we’re in deep trouble,” Cleland said.

Kerry would bring National Guard and reservist soldiers home to guard the homeland while training special forces to fight terrorists, Cleland said, using a “harder and smarter” strategy.

At the same time, the Bush administration aims to cut funding to veterans hospitals nationally, closing down six completely and limiting five others to outpatient services only, he said.

Cleland, who headed the U.S. Veterans Administration during the Carter administration, said Bush’s budget would cut veterans’ medical funding by $1 billion, which includes $4 million for Maine.

“I can’t believe the American people want that,” he said. “And I can’t believe we don’t need a change of leadership in the White House and put somebody in there who’s actually felt a wound, who’s been through the crucible of war and understands, as John Kerry has said 1,000 times, that the definition of patriotism is the ability of this country to take care of those who come back.”

By contrast, Cleland pointed to the military service of the Bush administration, including Bush, who never served in combat. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Cheney both received deferments to avoid going to Vietnam, Cleland said.

“You know the president wraps himself in the flag, but he won’t come near a flag-draped coffin coming back from Iraq,” he said.

Annette Sullivan of Veazie traveled with Cleland to show her support as a registered Republican backing Kerry.

Sullivan, who voted for Bush in 2000, said she would not be voting for him again this year because of the Halliburton contract, which she called unethical.

Retired from serving as a contracting officer with the Air National Guard in Maine, she taught a course on ethics in contracting.

“If it looks improper, it is improper,” she taught her students. “It is definitely improper to have the vice president of the the United States receiving a salary from this corporation that’s rebuilding Iraq. It’s just not right.”

Another veteran meeting with Cleland was Arthur Whitman, 78, of Auburn, who served in the Navy in World War II. A member of Veterans for Peace, he said Bush has alienated former allies around the world. “Fundamentalism is our enemy, whether it’s Islamic or Christian,” he said.

After the event, the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign held an impromptu press conference at Kennedy Park where former Maine Congressman Jim Longley Jr. and another veteran praised Bush’s military leadership.

“He knows what his purpose is,” Longley said. “I almost don’t care what he thinks about anything else.”