Veterans for Peace-Ernest Gruening Chapter: VideoVets: Bring Our Troops Home

One of our members passed this on to me and we both agree should take a look at these videos.

Today we're launching an important new project with our friends at VoteVets.org that will use the power of internet video to help spread the truth about how veterans and military families feel about the war.

The project is called VideoVets: Bring Our Troops Home and it contains some of the most compelling stories about this war that you've ever heard. These brave men and women want to put us on a course to start bringing our troops home.

Please watch these videos and tell us which one you think is most compelling. Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone will take the video you choose and turn it into a TV ad—spreading this message even further. Believe me, once you get started watching these you won't be able to stop.

Click below to watch now:

http://pol.moveon.org/videovets?id=10218-2067977-3dAE74&t=3

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 below to watch the videos and tell us which one Oliver Stone should turn into an ad.

http://pol.moveon.org/videovets?id=10218-2067977-3dAE74&t=4

Thanks for all you do,

–Nita, Laura, Karin, Patrick and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Thursday, April 19th, 2007

P.S. The views expressed in these interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of VoteVets.org or MoveOn.org Political Action. They are the views of interview subjects only.

P.P.S. We will close the rating process at midnight PST, on Wednesday, April 25th.

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Jon Lockert

Jon4Paz@AcsAlaska.net