Friday, February 09, 2007

Say What? VoteVets Ad

By Stuart Rothenberg

If supporters of President George W. Bush's policy of sending another 20,000 troops to Iraq had aired a television ad that argued that opposing the new Bush policy means "you don't support the troops," opponents of the President would have rightly gone bananas.

It's not the troops that they oppose, they would insist indignantly, it's the Bush policy, which so far has failed to accomplish its objectives and will result in additional casualties and costs with too little assurance of victory.

And yet, those same folks don't seem to mind paying for a VoteVets.org TV spot that says people who support Bush's policy "don't support the troops."

Oh well, given the high emotion on both sides and the general tendency of political activists of both liberal and conservative stripe to shun civility and reason, it's no wonder that opponents of the President's policy didn't merely cross the line; they obliterated it.

Let's be entirely clear: You can support the troops in the field and at the same time either support the President's policy or oppose the President's policy. Don't take my word for it. It's what Democratic politicians who oppose the Bush Iraq policy have been saying for months. Someone needs to tell the folks over at VoteVets.org that their ad is just plain wrong and that spending a lot of money to put it on TV doesn't change that.

I just did.