In blog posts over the past few weeks I've made reference to various campaign ads featuring veterans who support either Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain.  They contain powerful imagery and messages: veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and past wars -- including some who are wounded -- talk about their frontline experiences and deride the opposing candidate for his platforms on Iraq and/or domestic veterans issues.  No matter which candidate is being supported in an ad there are common threads that appear as the veterans speak of their service, yet at some point messages divide and the criticism begins. 

According to Gallup polls, present and former members of the military historically vote along Republican lines.  At the same time various pro-Obama groups are vocal over what they see as McCain's substandard record on veterans issues.  Both candidates have count support among veterans. Remember that moment during the first debate when each candidate referenced a bracelet he wore to remember fallen soldiers.  The important thing to note here is that while veterans can be seen as a group with a unique shared experience, their views are as widespread and nuanced as that of any American. 

Below is a collection of eight video advertisements featuring veterans as they promote their chosen presidential candidate. Watching them all in succession gives an interesting look at how they draw in their combat service as they promote either McCain or Obama.

Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama


Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain


Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama


Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain


Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama


Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain


Pro-McCain/Anti-Obama


Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain

The Humvees were taken Aug. 19 during Russia’s assault on the Georgian port of Poti, said Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, a spokesman for U.S. European Command. The vehicles were in Georgia awaiting commercial transport back to the U.S. following Operation Immediate Response, a multinational training exercise in July involving Georgian and U.S. forces. [Marine Corps Times]

Chris Biener, 21, Bohemia, Long Island:

New York: So you leave for Army Reserves boot camp next Monday. What'll you do until then?
CB: Hang out with some friends.
New York: What have you been doing up to now?
CB: I went to Stonybrook University and played football there for the first semester, then I went to Suffolk Community College, then I started working and going to school, back and forth, then I decided to do this.

New York: Why didn't you stay in college?
CB: I kept switching my major, which kept putting me back. So I worked at a swimming-pool store.
New York: Why are you joining the military?
CB: I almost did it straight out of high school, but my parents wanted me to go to college. I always wanted to join growing up.
New York: Why?
CB: I've always played sports, but there's no team after high school. So this is a big team to join.
New York: What's your big dream?
CB: I'm going to be an LPN, a nurse. So when I get out [of the military], I know I'll get a good job. And if I stay in, there'll always be people who need help.
New York: We're in two wars right now. You may go and be seriously physically or mentally damaged or die. Does that affect your decision?
CB: I used to think about it, but then I realized I'll be trained enough to probably get away from that situation, so if it happens, it happens.
New York: How would you characterize the situation [in Iraq] right now?
CB: We should be there, but the people don't want us there. It's kind of up in the air.
New York: Should we reinstitute the draft?
CB: No, I think the turnout's positive enough with volunteer people. With a draft you have an Army with people who don't want to be there. If it's volunteer, you'll get 100 percent out of all of them.
New York: Would you pick Iraq or Afghanistan to be deployed to?
CB: Iraq. There seems to be more going on. It'd be more fun. As a nurse, there'd be more jobs for me to do.
[Daily Intel]

Handman began basic training Aug. 29 at Fort Benning in Columbus. He soon wrote a letter to his parents in which he said, “I have just never been so discriminated against/humiliated about my religion.” He told them he feared for his safety.

Handman’s parents contacted U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who forwarded their concerns to the Army. Four days after commanders interviewed Handman about being harassed, he was beaten in a laundry room near his barracks and treated at the Army post’s hospital.

Manganaro said investigators don’t believe religious bigotry was the motive for Handman being attacked, though she could not explain why...The investigation of Handman’s allegations of harassment found that one drill sergeant had ordered Handman to remove his yarmulke, which he wore with his uniform, as he ate in a dining hall. Another had called him “Juden,” the German word for Jews. [AP]

A new campaign ad by the group VoteVets criticizes Sen. John McCain for skipping a crucial GI Bill vote.  In the ad the veteran remarks: "Vet to vet, Senator McCain.  When you put money from your rich friends ahead of vets like me how is that country first?"



A few weeks ago I posted a pro-McCain ad featuring a wounded Iraq veteran.  I'm reposting it here for you to compare how veterans from two different ways of thinking voice support for their respective candidates.




The widow of an Iraq veteran who committed suicide after returning from the war is suing the federal government for negligence.  The deceased veteran, Donald Woodward, 23, made three suicide attempts and was seeking treatment at a VA hospital.  His wife said VA doctors were slow to diagnose her husband's psychiatric condition and did not schedule follow-up visits.  Woodward, at the time, was in VA out-patient care for depression.

"I intend to make them make changes," said his mother, Lori Woodward. "I have too many friends whose kids are in Iraq. I have a nephew now in Iraq, in the same unit, and I can't have my family go through this again."

Alison Aikele, a VA spokeswoman in Washington, said the agency does not typically comment on pending litigation. [AP]

1) Will the candidates (and the moderator) note the difference between "tactical" success of the surge, versus the overall strategic goal of the surge, and whether that was a success?

2) Will the candidates be challenged on the deteriorating situation with Pakistan? Will Obama hold to his position that we must act to strike terrorists officially inside Pakistan's borders, and will McCain hold to his view that Obama is wrong to strike in the ungoverned parts of Pakistan without the expressed consent from Islamabad?

3) Will the candidates speak about our inability to take care of our current military commitments, let alone new ones?

4) Will the candidates lay out what steps short of military action they would take to prevent a nuclear Iran?

5) Given news that Prime Minister Maliki has hinted that he prefers a timeline that removes troops by 2010, but was pressured to accept a 2011 timeline due to U.S. political considerations, will the candidates consider moving a timeline to exit Iraq back to 2010, or do they consider that unrealistic?

"Tell me why there's any rational reason why you shouldn't have a seat at that table," Biden said, speaking one day after Republican presidential candidate John McCain addressed the group.

Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala, adjutant general of Biden's home state of Delaware and president of the Adjutants General Association of the United States, said such recognition, similar to that given the Marine Corps after initial representation by the Navy, is long overdue.

"It's something that we certainly are advocating as an association," said Vavala, who noted that more than a third of the Army and Air Force consists of National Guard units, and that the Guard numbers almost 500,000 men and women.

"Our people are fighting the war every day," he said, adding that the notion of Guardsmen as "weekend warriors" no longer applies.

Biden's eldest son, Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, is a captain in a National Guard unit that is to report for training next month before being deployed to Iraq.

As the presidential election draws near -- and partly in response to Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his running mate -- Askari apparently has softened his rhetoric on the U.S. presence.

He still favors withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011, as proposed in the security treaty. And he figures that the deadline will be honored by whoever wins, if only for the sake of the 2012 American elections.

But changing now from a Republican to a Democratic administration would be problematic, he says -- not least because Obama has said the U.S. Congress should be involved in any status-of-forces agreement with Iraq.

Askari also expressed concern about Biden's 2007 plan to divide Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions -- Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni -- with a central government in Baghdad. He called the Biden plan "the essence of a nightmare feared by Iraqis."

"Not that any of Biden's proposals will take effect, as the socio-political reality in Iraq is undividable," he continued. "But Iraqis will pay dearly until Biden and his camp are convinced that his 'theory' is inapplicable in Iraq."

As both an Iraq war veteran and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I am intimately familiar with John McCain's valiant and honorable military service. McCain, as far as I am concerned, is a true American hero. Unfortunately, his heroism in the Vietnam War has been allowed to morph into a patently false "record" - ceaselessly touted by his campaign - that McCain is a strong advocate for veterans. That could not be further from the truth...

...The nation's largest Iraq veterans organization, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonpartisan organization, grades members of Congress on how they vote on legislation that "affect[s] troops, veterans or military families." This includes votes on such issues as expanded health care services for veterans and reservists, military death benefits, traumatic brain injury research and adequate rest for service members between deployments, just to name a few.

Of the 155 votes tracked by IAVA since 9/11, John McCain received a grade of "D." While no senator earned a grade of "A," Barack Obama got a "B ."

Words on Iraq by the candidates themselves still continue to follow the same lines of reason and criticism.  Writing on a Wall Street Journal blog, Elizabeth Holmes described John McCain's appearance at the same National Guard convention at which Biden spoke.  During his speech McCain took the opportunity to combine the economy and Iraq in order to highlight his opponent's lack of leadership:

“Whether it’s a reversal in war, or an economic emergency, he reacts as a politician and not as a leader, seeking an advantage for himself instead of a solution for his country.”

“John McCain is so out of touch that he wants to keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq indefinitely while the Iraqi government sits on a $79 billion surplus and our economy is in turmoil.”

Movie critics have pointed to the fact Americans already see the war everyday on the news (at least, for many years they did), and fictionalized portrayals simply don't have the escapism movies can provide.  Then there's the over-saturation of political messages some of the movies contained.  Washington Times movie critic Christian Toto told NPR last year: "A lot of the critics of the more recent films have said that the films are full of speeches, and it's very obvious what the political angle is.  And I think an artist, maybe if he or she had some time to reflect on the material, may give a more nuanced balanced performance."

Creative Loafing's J.r. Jones took a brief look at the history of war movies made soon after the wars they portrayed ended.  He began with 1946's The Best Years of Our Lives, a truly amazing film following three veterans home from WWII as they deal with alcoholism, family tensions, and their injuries.  The film was awarded eight Oscars.  The post-Vietnam era saw the movies The Dear Hunter and Coming Home receive critical acclaim and solid public interest.  Then came Iraq (and notice there really hasn't been any major film looking at the Korean War, other than maybe the Manchurian Candidate -- but, that's a different story).  Jones gave a solid history of Iraq movies up to this point:

Dramas about returning Iraq war veterans haven't received nearly so warm a welcome. The first, Irwin Winkler's Home of the Brave, opened in New York and LA shortly before Christmas 2006 and was released a little more widely the following summer, mostly near military bases, but it quickly vanished. Clearly modeled on The Best Years of Our Lives, it followed three soldiers as they tried to adjust to life in a country that didn't want to think about them or the war they'd been fighting. I wouldn't call it a knockout, but it had some powerful scenes, particularly those involving Jessica Biel as a soldier who'd lost a hand and was now forced to make do with a big, clumsy prosthesis obviously designed for a man. Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, an MTV-produced drama about three young grunts returning from the war to their stars-and-stripes Texas town, got a more respectful rollout from Paramount Pictures this past March, but it flopped, grossing less than half its $25 million production cost.

"The Lucky Ones," co-writer/director Neil Burger's credible if unremarkable follow-up to his extraordinary "The Illusionist," refers to soldiers returning from Iraq in one piece...What follows is a series of occasionally funny encounters, as well as some soapy complications not so unpleasant as they are predictable. There are the requisite moving moments, too, making "The Lucky Ones" no more or less noteworthy than the slew of war movies preceding it in the last year or two.

The film...has Iraq on its mind, though it never mentions the word. It wants to make some kind of commentary on how the country hasn't come to grips with the war or its veterans without taking the issue head-on. Perhaps the director and his co-writer, Dirk Wittenborn ("Fierce People''), thought a lighter, entertaining approach would work after so many box-office failures about the war that were either dark thrillers or dramas. But the contrived and convoluted plot of "The Lucky Ones'' eventually undermines any serious intentions.

McGinnis was perched in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee when a grenade sailed past him and into the truck where four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning to the others, then jumped on the grenade. The grenade, which was lodged near the vehicle's radio, blew up and killed him.

-In May 2007 the practice of stop-loss reached a three-year low of 8,540.

-"Since then, the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army rose 43% to 12,235 in March."

-"Soldiers affected by stop loss now serve, on average, an extra 6.6 months...Key leaders at the small-unit level — sergeants through sergeants first class — make up 45% of those soldiers. Soldiers typically enlist for four-year stints."

-58,300 soldiers have been affected by the stop-loss since 2002.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, among the seven-hundred-odd journalists who embedded with combat units were few who were familiar with the military in any intimate way. To many critics, especially those with military experience, this revealed itself in the press’s coverage of the war, which they felt often missed the mark when it came to explaining the hows and the whys of the fight, as well as the mundane realities of military life and culture.

In mid 2007 oobgolf.com launched an advanced golf course finder for our users. We recently made the decision to use that same technology and development resources to map the hometowns of soldiers who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This was not done as a political statement. We simply felt that this tool provided a unique way for Americans to connect to these fallen soldiers in a new more personal way.

Earlier this week I posted excerpts from I journal I kept while serving in Iraq. During this fifth anniversary week of the war, I wanted to give readers a sense of what it was like preparing to deploy. Today I'm posting a few more entries from the journal. They all take place while I was at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, waiting to see if/when we'd get the call to deploy. 

March 23, 2003

A Sunday afternoon on the barracks' catwalk. Day four of the war. Nothing much else to do but bullsh*t and watch TV. There are an estimated 50 Marine casualties at this point. Mom said she watched a firefight on TV this morning. Some U.S. forces are less than 100 miles from Baghdad.  Other than that don't know what else to say...just waiting. A lot of us think that we'll end up going no where, just end up staying stateside. I don't believe that, I just hope we don't go somewhere for some bull*t mission. If we do something good I know I'll feel as though I've accomplished something worthwhile in my 23 years. 

Things just get more surreal by the hour. First, we watched more footage of the front lines where Marines were fighting. These guys are just like us, it's so obvious but I just can't get my head around it. At one point the reporter mentioned he was with the 2nd Battalion 8th Marines--and we're staying in their barracks right now. It's getting more frustrating to see Marines dying and not being able to help them. Sgt. D- speculates that our leave date for Iraq might come sooner. He also says when we get there we'll probably wish for these long nights back in the U.S.  Funny, because he's never talked like that before.


March 24, 2003

Not much to say except that today I realized I could actually die. I mean I see vivid pictures of such things, and I see how easily this can happen in war. It may seem like an obvious statement.  I thought about these kinds of things the moment I enlisted. But never in those early, innocent, "good ol' days" when I rushed through weekend training to get back to school and finish my homework, did I ever think I'd be in a war. Then, once this became apparent, it has taken until now to really understand what war actually means...I mean, really means. It doesn't seem like me, David Botti, could be shot to death on a road in Iraq...but, it can so easily happen. So easy to become a name on the wall, and a cross in Arlington Nation Cemetery where thousands like me may have thought the same things. But I shouldn't think about such morbid things. The war is getting bloodier...especially for the Marines. Today I saw an Army convoy come under attack on TV.


March 25, 2003

Things have changed infinitely in a matter of a few hours. We learned today that we would be leaving for Kuwait by the weekend. Things kicked into high gear. The mood seems somber, uncertain, worried. Things are so real and so clear that it seems everyday the fog lifts revealing how things will really be. I could see it in the major's face as he told us we were going. Here are people's thoughts: H- is having trouble sleeping; B- is worried that he'll kill someone and go to hell; S- wishes he picked up a slutty girl last weekend; A- doesn't feel like talking to his parents (he also thinks he only has a 20 percent chance of coming home not wounded or dead); C- wants to go but is scared at the same time; N- is nervous. All I can really do is concentrate on the future, and put all this into perspective when I come back home.

Along with the Iraq war starting five years ago this week, this period was also the first time I began writing in the journal I kept while deployed.  I'm posting excerpts today and tomorrow, so you can get a sense of what was going through the mind of a lowly lance corporal on his way to Iraq.  The entries are not particularly eloquent, but they're real and I hope they just show what the calm was like before the storm.  I've omitted the names of my fellow Marines for their privacy.

...from that first impact, among many on the roof, the mood was scarcely one of cool detachment, or at least not as cautioned as it might have been by the longer-term implications of what we were seeing. Part of it, no doubt, was the air show — the sheer, astonishing, overwhelming demonstration of power, more like an act of God than man, unleashing in those watching from the roof something approaching awe.

• 28% of the public is aware that nearly 4,000 troops have been killed in Iraq over the past five years.
• Nearly 50% think the number of U.S. deaths is 3,000 or fewer.
• 23% of the public think the number of U.S. deaths is higher than 4,000.
• In earlier surveys nearly half of the respondents recalled the correct number of deaths.
• In 2007 the median of Iraq-associated news stories was 15% of all news stories.
• During the last week in January, 36% of those surveyed said they were most closely following campaign news; 14% the stock market; 12% the death of Heath Ledger; and 6% the war in Iraq.
• And, as the Associated Press quotes the survey director: "All education levels in the recent survey were similarly uninformed."

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it – instead they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “bad seeds” as the military suggests, but evidence of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or covers up routine abuse and atrocities.

Other veterans, and vet bloggers, aren't thrilled with this event. A group called "Stop the Slander," described as a "coalition of concerned veterans, family members, and friends," has even published a guide for reporter's covering IVAW.  The guide warns journalists that claims made by IVAW may be untrue.  The guide even provides an acronym to follow of questions to ask:

D: Date(s) – When did the incident occur?
U: Unit(s) – What military units were involved?
P: Personnel – What are the names of the participants and witnesses?
E: Event(s) – What exactly happened exactly where?
S: Signature(s) – Was this reported at the time or later and were reports, affidavits or depositions signed, or will they now be signed?

Veterans For Freedom blogger, Mark Seavey, took his own critical look at the IVAW's preparations for the Winter Soldier event, but in the end wrote that both sides of the debate should be heard -- without unnecessary contest or debate:

I think it speaks well of IVAW that they expect all testimony to be true and verifiable.  And there will plenty of eyes there to ensure that.  Hopefully we can all say our piece, discuss our views and then go home with no violence on anyone’s part.

 

The term "Winter Soldier" is derived from Thomas Paine's passage intended to motivate George Washington's troops suffering at Valley Forge:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”