Every Day More Veterans Object to Bush's War

Hard Hitters
The VoteVets.org activist group is pulling no punches in its vocal attacks on President Bush and supporters of his Iraq policies.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Daren Briscoe
Newsweek
Updated: 12:58 p.m. PT Feb 12, 2007
Feb. 12, 2007 - Among the racy and obnoxious Super Bowl ads selling everything from beer to insurance, at least one commercial interruption had a more serious intention. VoteVets.org, a political action group affiliated with a coalition of left-leaning organizations including MoveOn.org, ran an ad (only in certain markets) where Iraq war veterans, including an amputee, spoke out against President Bush’s “surge.” NEWSWEEK’s Daren Briscoe recently spoke to VoteVets cofounder Jon Soltz, who served as a captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and also trained soldiers for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is VoteVets.org?
Jon Soltz: We’re a pro-military group that’s concerned about things that affect the military at the lowest levels. We’re for destroying Al Qaeda and the people that attacked this country on September 11. We’re not an antiwar group at all—it makes me go ballistic when I hear people say that. But you can’t be for the troops and for the president when he talks about continuing a failed strategy with another surge. That’s not supporting the troops.

What is your group trying to accomplish?
During the last election cycle, we worked to provide infrastructure and support for candidates who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, like Patrick Murphy and Tammy Duckworth, and we feel like we played a big role in sending a message to the president that he was on the wrong track with the war. Now we’re part of a massive lobbying effort targeting key Republican senators who want to tell you that they don’t support the escalation, but who don’t want to allow a debate on it to happen. If Congress wants to support the troops, the first step is to get a nonbinding resolution from a bipartisan majority that sends a clear message to the president that his strategy is not working. Continuing a failed strategy with another surge, that’s not supporting the troops.

Does your position about the war describe the way you felt when you went to Iraq, or is it something that developed during your time there?
When I went to Iraq I drank all the Kool-Aid. I still remember thinking about what we were going to do when we found all these weapons of mass destruction. We thought we were going over there to fight the people that attacked this country. Then, when you start seeing things for yourself, when you start hearing things like the president saying, “Bring it on,” it dawns on you that you haven’t been told...

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