UPDATE II: I got a response from Mr Coleman to my email below. He replied:
"It is not the "troops" who are making the ad. It is their political leaders. How sick is that? I have the greatest regard and respect for the troops. And I don't
think they shoud die for a lie."
So I sent back:
"So you object to their free speech eh? Maybe these guys veiwed it as their opportunity to "speak truth to power"; the power of the MSMs relentless negativity in the coverage of the war.
There hasn't been any lie proven by anyone, despite repeating the phrase over and over. So, don't trot that out on me. 12 years of sanctions and 14 different reasons in the authorization to use military force against Iraq really puts that one to bed, don't you think?
Saddam had metric tons of WMD; that is indisputable. The real question is: where was it and where did it go? Maybe if reporters tried to do their job instead of relying on having AP and UPI to spoonfeed them propaganda talking points and spin, we might find out. Thank you for responding, at least you did that."
Update: I did a google on the Veterans organization that Coleman quotes; Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). They may be vets but they have been drinking the moonbat koolaid and have their roots in the leftwing Democracy In Action astro-turf organizers that proudly link with Code Pinks "Say No to War toys" anti-military propaganda as well as the usual leftwing woo-woo causes. They also include links to an anti-war documentary that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. I also
googled their founder Paul Reickhoff. He has been busy making the moonbat curcuit rounds of Air America, Mother Jones, AlterNet, PBS, NPR, etc. He is a Democrat Party Operative.
I love how these "non-partisan" non-profits regularly slant left in their advocacy, support and linkings. Their site is clearly partisan, despite their claims to the contrary. If they were truly non-partisan, one could expect to find some criticism of the leftwing politicians who have undermined support for the mission and badmouthed the troops, but no such animal is to be found on their site. Some of their founders mouth the moonbat "Bush Lied" garbage with the imprimature of veterans status to give it weight. Their "Take Action" links reek of Democrat Party talking points. They should just call themselves Iraqi/Afghanistan Veterans against the War and have done with it. The IAVA doesn't speak for me.
ORIGINAL POST I saw on Powerline a link to a
column in the Minnesota Star Tribune trying to smear Iraq Vets who made an ad supporting the Iraq mission. Crap like this pisses me off, so I wrote him a love note:
Mr Coleman,
Please refrain from commenting on what todays veterans support or do not support. Your ignorance of the situation on the ground in Iraq and your attempt to smear a view contrary to your un-informed, misguided opinion is quite obvious. You can't even get your facts straight regarding opinion polls of the troops. The troops overwhelmingly support the mission, regardless of how they feel about the president.
The ad says the truth; that we are fighting AL QUAEDA in Iraq and that AL QUAEDA was responsible for 9/11. duh. Reading comprehention much? Ken Adelman was NOT the Bush campaign director. The Center for Media and Democracy is putting out bogus info and you bought because you cannot comprehend that the soldiers on the ground who see whats actually going on, as opposed to the daily leftwing propaganda effort by people like you to smear our good names and tell whatever lie you think will work to undermine public support of the war.
You speak of the "swiftboating" of the Iraq war. The SBVFT gathered together to tell their firsthand experiences of serving with John Kerry, which was at odds with his selfserving claims and outright lies about his actual service in Vietnam and also because the media showed no interest in Kerrys' service other than to be a hypocritical echo chamber of his claims while going on a fullout attack on the Presidents service to the point of publishing forged documents on the eve of the election. Because of the leftwing press like you that pimps the negative over the positive in Iraq, the troops are forced to make their own case, which costs money. I haven't spoken to one troop in over the thousand of all ranks I have worked with that thinks the antique media, who's views you represent, has reported the reality on the ground. Most see your style of reporting for what it is; a dishonest attempt to turn the American People against the war, like the America haters did during the Vietnam war. Get your facts straight.
