Mistaken Identity

[darrels joy]

Mistaken Identity
Best of the Web Today - November 29, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO

Yesterday we got an e-mail from an old friend who is a captain in the U.S. Army. He writes:

I just got back from my third deployment from Iraq on Friday, and I happened to be at the dentist and saw a completely offensive ad from the idiots at MoveOn.org this morning. Anyway, it is a Bush-bashing ad that pretends to be arguing for American soldiers families as they will miss the holidays and it shows turkey and crying wives and blames Bush for it all. Here is the crucial part of the ad that I would like to bring to your attention. As they pretend to argue on my behalf, they show a group of soldiers standing around a table in the Middle East.

Here's the scene to which our friend refers:



"A hundred and fifty thousand American men and women are stuck in Iraq," according to the narration that accompanies this scene. Our friend (we've cleaned up a bit of his language for civilian consumption) continues:

These are not your normal everyday U.S. soldiers though. If you look at the frame they are actually British soldiers. One is in shorts (we don't have shorts as a normal combat uniform) and the others are all clearly wearing British pattern fatigues. So, my point is that these [turkeys] pretend to argue on my behalf and bash the president in the name of my crying wife, and they don't even know what an American soldier looks like! Anyway, it really [ticked] me off.

The only thing that would have made this more galling is if the ad had mentioned that the liberation of Iraq was "unilateral."

[darrels joy]

The MoveOn CoverUp
Yesterday we noted that a new MoveOn.org ad features a narrator declaring, "A hundred and fifty thousand American men and women are stuck in Iraq," as it shows a photo of British soldiers. Many of our readers pointed out that in addition to this misrepresentation, MoveOn has altered the scene in a still shot it shows on its Web site. Above is the scene from the ad, which we showed yesterday:

See the difference? The man in the foreground, who has shorts in the video, appears to have donned cammies. In fact, if we're not mistaken, he is actually wearing the same pants--that is, the exact same pair--as the man behind him to the viewer's right. We're not even sure what the point of this deception could be. Perhaps MoveOn's dishonesty is simply pathological.

Here's a copy of the still, enlarged by blogger Kevin Aylward:

[darrels joy]

MoveOn.org Pulls Anti-War Ad Following Criticism
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
November 30, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - The liberal political group MoveOn.org has yanked a video ad from its website after being criticized for using images of British soldiers to represent Americans in Iraq.

The 30-second ad, which also began running on CNN and cable stations during the Thanksgiving weekend, stated that "150,000 American men and women are stuck in Iraq" this holiday season.

But the ad showed soldiers who were "not wearing U.S. uniforms," according to a Pentagon spokesman who was interviewed by Cybercast News Service Wednesday, approximately two hours before the Internet version of the ad was pulled from the MoveOn.org website.

"Some folks won't be home this holiday season," the 30-second spot declared before showing a video pan of a group of soldiers getting military rations. The narrator then stated that "150,000 American men and women are stuck in Iraq."

Todd Vician, a spokesman with the U.S. Defense Department, told Cybercast News Service after viewing the ad that none of the men featured in the photograph was wearing U.S. uniforms. "We don't have that style of desert camouflage," he said.

Vician noted that combat fatigues worn by the Marines and the Army have "a pixilated design," and Air Force BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) have a different pattern than the uniforms shown in the spot.

In addition to the men wearing foreign uniforms, Vician stated that he had never seen U.S. soldiers using meal containers like those shown in the ad.

A Nov. 21 press release from MoveOn.org Political Action indicated that the advertisement "echoes Democrats' calls for an exit plan from Iraq" and attacks Republicans for "failing to offer a plan to end the U.S. occupation" of that country.

The video ad itself concluded with the following: "Tell your representative. Support our troops. Bring them home."

Along with running nationwide on CNN, the spot was being aired on cable stations in the districts of GOP members of the House of Representatives who, according to the MoveOn.org press release, "launched personal attacks on Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a decorated Vietnam veteran who last week called for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."

MoveOn.org did not return repeated telephone calls from Cybercast News Service seeking comment for this article. It was unclear Wednesday afternoon whether the ad had also been pulled from television.

But the television ad has already reportedly drawn a sharp reaction from an Army captain who just completed his third deployment in Iraq, according to OpinionJournal.com.

James Taranto, the author of the OpinionJournal.com column, wrote that the Army captain was "an old friend" of his who emailed with his criticism. The captain was quoted as calling the MoveOn.org TV ad "completely offensive" and "a Bush-bashing ad" that "shows turkey and crying wives and blames Bush for it all."

As "the idiots from MoveOn.org ... pretend to argue on my behalf, they show a group of soldiers standing around a table in the Middle East," the captain reportedly wrote and added that the individuals in the photo were "actually British soldiers.

"One is in shorts (we don't have shorts as a normal combat uniform), and the others are all clearly wearing British pattern fatigues," the Army captain wrote, noting that people at MoveOn.org "don't even know what an American soldier looks like!"

[Advisor]

Hey, what's wrong with a little (?) lie if the cause is 'just'? Hitler & Stalin were past master's at this (note that one is a National Socialist-Fascist {right} and that the other is Communist {left}) Liars come in all shapes & sizes..& all justify lies for the 'cause'. eF 'em all.