Vets speak out against "Midwest Heroes" ads

Lest the so-called "Midwest Heroes" TV ads imply that a vast majority of veterans support the war in Iraq, there are numerous veterans' voices on the other side. This is from former U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer Andrew Borene:

Minnesota State Senate Candidate and former U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer Andrew Borene responded today to national reports of a special-interest ad, which was paid for by the conservative Progress for America Voter Fund and will air tonight in Minnesota. Borene gained national exposure in 2004 as a former Republican who served as a spokesman for a group of Veterans supporting Kerry-Edwards in the Presidential elections.

Borene attacked untruths in the ad, suggesting that the clearly deceptive message undermines public trust in our military and asked why those who had created it were not "presenting a constructive perspective based on reality."

Borene who served as an intelligence officer during the 2003 major combat operations in Iraq rebutted other assertions in the ad, explaining that "The mismanaged war in Iraq has already done enough damage to our progress in the war on terrorism and the insurgency in Iraq is a civil conflict that is far more complicated than Al Qaida alone. Over the past three years, the President and his appointed civilian leadership have consistently refused to listen to objective intelligence and combat leadership, spending more time on this kind of stateside spin than on winning in Iraq or supporting our young heroes on the ground."

Borene explained that his service as an intelligence officer Iraq was a root cause of his call to pursue further service in government as a Democrat, saying "Iraq is by no means the whole global war on terrorism picture. Mainstream America understands that, Democrats understand that, and we will work to build a stronger America that can successfully address the real threats of terrorism at home and abroad."

This is from Navy veteran Jim Bootz. An excerpt was recently printed as a letter to the editor in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

With regard to the story about the pro-war ad campaign ("Minnesota veterans take to TV to build Iraq war support" 2/10/06), isn't the country finally past the point where this kind of propaganda stands a chance of winning converts?

Let's get something straight here. The World Trade Center towers were brought down on September 11th, 2001, by members of Al Qaida operating out of Afghanistan, under the protection of the ruling Taliban in that country. They did not come from Iraq. They were not doing the bidding of Saddam Hussein. They did not receive training or material support from Iraq. Despite the fact that the president and vice president have repeatedly tried to tie the war in Iraq to 9/11, and despite their repeatedly having been forced to admit publicly that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11, we still see these pathetic attempts by the Right to proclaim something that just isn't so. It's been proven that we directed our efforts away from capturing the people responsible for the attack on our soil in favor of launching an attack on Saddam Hussein that was being planned by this administration long before it even was an administration.

It's especially sad for those who have lost loved ones in this unnecessary war that there are people who have the funds to put ads on television promoting some artificial happy news about what's going on in Iraq. There are many good reasons that the people of Iraq overwhelmingly want us to leave their country. They have a problem with terrorists that they didn't have before. They have a problem with civil war that they didn't have before. They have shortages of clean drinking water, electricity, sanitation, and other necessary utilities and services that they didn't have before, or at least not before the UN sanctions were imposed. They also have a problem with corruption, far beyond anything they saw under Saddam. And much of that corruption was introduced or cultivated by the sloppiness of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the greed of U.S. corporations who don't have to bid to get lucrative government contracts.

Sure, let's hear some happy talk about Iraq. Let's hear that the troops are coming home.

For more on this issue, see "Midwest Heroes Part IV" and previous articles.

LEIGH POMEROY