| As one of the leaders of "Veterans for Merkley", I feel a duty to respond to the ridiculous false attack being used to misrepresent Jeff Merkley's position against the Iraq war.
This month Jeff Merkley was the first U.S. Senate candidate in the nation to endorse A Responsible Plan to End the Iraq War, a proposal authored by distinguished military leaders and progressive Democrats to immediately bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq and restore stability in the region.
Make no mistake: Jeff Merkley has opposed the Iraq war from the very start. On March 21, 2003, within hours of George Bush launching this war, Jeff Merkley courageously stood up on the floor of the Oregon House and declared his opposition to the war. The war was a huge mistake, and Jeff Merkley called Bush on it from the beginning. He praised the courage of the young men and women serving our nation and prayed that the fighting would quickly come to an end.
Five years later, the fighting rages on. Gordon Smith and George Bush led us into an ill-conceived and misguided war with no plan to get us out. They continue to press on despite their obvious failures. They have failed our troops, failed our nation, and failed the aspirations of the Iraqi people.
Jeff knows we must immediately elect new leaders in order to bring this disastrous war to a responsible end. Steve Novick does not.
Rather than taking aim at America's failed leaders, at every turn Steve Novick has incessantly and spitefully attacked and insulted Jeff Merkley, a dedicated and sworn protestor of the Iraq war.
Steve has used Republican talking points in a crass attempt to turn Democrats against one another - an effort that serves only his selfish personal political agenda.
At a time when public opinion polls showed support for the war approaching 90 percent, Jeff Merkley stood up and spoke out against it.
I support Jeff because he stands up for what he believes in, regardless of the politics.
Jeff sees a problem, finds a solution, and works his heart out to get it done. That's what we need to end the Iraq war and that's what Oregon needs in a United States Senator.
Steve Novick is a professional political consultant, a former lobbyist, a bright guy, and a good campaigner. But he's used the old-fashioned politics of personal destruction to manipulate a very serious issue and launch a false political attack rather than work to bring our sons and daughters home. That's just one reason why we don't need a professional political consultant like Steve Novick in the U.S. Senate.
When soldiers, veterans, and military families hear Novick's false attacks, they turn their heads in disappointment. These Americans deserve real leadership - the kind Jeff Merkley is offering.
Who will be best equipped in the U.S. Senate to bring an end to this war? A political consultant who uses Republican talking points to attack sincere and responsible Democrats who oppose the war? Someone who calls opponents of the war "cowards" for his own political gain?
Or Jeff Merkley, who has been a public opponent of the war from the very start; who spent nearly a decade as an outspoken national security analyst in the Pentagon and Congress; and a progressive Democrat who has offered a responsible plan to end the war immediately?
We need to end this war and we need Democrat Jeff Merkley in the U.S. Senate to do it.
Sincerely,
Jim Rassmann
Former U.S. Army Special Forces Officer
Co-chair of "Veterans for Merkley"
Chair of "Veterans for Kerry" |
