Progressive Democrat Issue 119: LISTENING TO THE TROOPS

Republicans keep yammering on and on about "supporting the troops." But when it actually comes to listening to our troops, supporting them with proper equipment, or supporting them when they come home as Veterans, they fall far short of their rhetoric. Hell, this administration was even forcing soldiers to pay their own way from bases to their home towns to visit their families until Al Franken and Air America Radio started a movement, taken up by Daily Kos and much of the progressive blogsphere, to donate airline miles to our troops to get them home. This embarassed Bush enough that suddenly the administration changed the policy.

Bush isn't listenting to the soldiers or Veterans regarding Iraq either. VoteVets.org and MoveOn.org are giving voice to our Veterans in a project called VideoVets: Bring Our Troops Home. Here's what they are doing in their own words:

Every day at MoveOn we get letters from military families and veterans who're outraged that the president hides behind the troops to justify his policy—a policy that's leaving tens of thousands of them stranded in the middle of an unwinnable civil war. We talked to our friends at VoteVets.org about their members, who felt the same way. We realized we had to help give these folks a platform to speak out.

Over 700 MoveOn members around the country volunteered their time to interview and videotape the veterans and military families. Then we put them up on our website—and on YouTube—for you to watch.

Today, we have over 20 interviews, each less than 2 minutes long. Here are just a few examples of the moving stories we heard.

* John, a former sergeant who served in Iraq told us "I feel used and I feel misled by the administration. I feel that my patriotism has been used and exploited—my willingness to fight for this country was used and exploited."

* Peter, also a former sergeant who served in Iraq said, "If there was a manual written on how not to fight a war, it would be this administration's playbook."

* Pam, whose son was deployed to Iraq as part of the escalation told us "They are young kids and they are now going to be placed there, on the frontlines, with an abbreviated month of training, with poor equipment, with inadequate equipment and they know it."

This is really powerful stuff.

The administration tries to call anyone who criticizes their policy in Iraq 'anti-troop,' but these stories show that 'supporting the troops' does NOT mean supporting an endless war. The voices of these veterans and military families are missing from the debate in Washington. Together we can make sure they become a vital part of the national dialogue around ending the war.

Click [here] to watch the videos and tell us which one Oliver Stone should turn into an ad.

I dare Bush, Cheney, McCain or Lieberman to look these soldiers in the eye and call them "anti-troop."

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