Today, VoteVets.org is debuting a new television ad that starts airing this week -- challenging John McCain to give America some straight talk, and tell us all the things that his plan for endless war in Iraq will make the American people sacrifice.
The ad features, for the first time, a female Iraq veteran and her small child. Rose Forrest served 12 months in Iraq, and gave birth to her little son, when she came home. In the ad, Rose challenges John McCain to tell the truth about what endless war means for her child, and all of our children. Senator McCain needs to give us some straight talk about how much endless war in Iraq is going to cost. We don't have an endless pot of money, or an endless supply of troops and equipment.
So what are Americans going to have to sacrifice if he has his way on Iraq? Health care? Decent jobs? Border security that all those National Guardsmen in Iraq could be performing? Rescue and cleanup after disasters like Katrina and tornados in Kansas and Tennessee? Are we going to have to sacrifice our chance to cripple Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan? We can't do it all, but John McCain seems to pretend that we can.
We're airing this ad in the hopes that Senator McCain finally gets honest with the American people. We're putting it out there so that the media and power-brokers start to ask the same questions. Endless war in Iraq means drastic sacrifices for Americans in their everyday lives, and in terms of our own security.
It's all about priorities, and on this question, the wheels are falling off the Straight Talk Express.
This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we'll be on an all-out offensive, to expose the strategies that hurt us here at home and abroad in our fight against al Qaeda. We're going to challenge our leaders to get our global strategy right. You can count on us leading the way, but we cannot do it without you. So please, view our ad and pass it along to all of your friends and family. Together, we can change America's course.