Media Campaign Goes After Four GOP Senators for Their Iraq Support [VIDEO]

Four of the leading Republicans in the Senate who have offered constant support for Bush's Iraq policies are the targets of a huge ad campaign that will broadcast in their home states.

Organized by the Campaign to Defend America, the media campaign is going to make Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Norm Coleman, R-Minn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., have a much tougher time explaining to their constituents why they aren't criticizing the ongoing occupation of Iraq in ads tailored to each politician.

Airing from Sept. 6-15, the high-quality ads depict children undergoing basic military training and contrast Republican priorities for funding an "endless religious civil war" to the tune of $450 billion instead of using that money for education or healthcare. The ads tell viewers to ask the Republican senators to bring the troops home "so our kids won't have to fight an endless civil war too."

The Campaign to Defend America is part of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI), a large coalition of organizations that includes: Service Employees International Union, MoveOn.org Political Action, VoteVets.org, Center for American Progress Action Fund, USAction, Win Without War, Campaign for America's Future, the United States Student Association, Working Assets, Americans United for Change, Campus Progress Action and the Nation Security Network.

AAEI campaign manager and MoveOn.org Washington director Tom Matzzie tells the press, "Mitch McConnell needs to put his vote where his mouth is. It's September and the surge has failed. No more six-month free passes for Bush. The ad reminds people that McConnell and other Republicans are pushing an endless war in Iraq -- somebody else's civil war."

This ad campaign is part of AAEI's Iraq Summer campaign, which has 100 staff members and is located in 15 states "to target more than 60 members of Congress who are blocking the passage of legislation that will bring a safe end to the war in Iraq." Tom Mattzie explained to the Nation, "Often in these suburban and exurban Republican districts there’s no institutional support for a campaign to end the war. ... [What] a lot of Iraq Summer is about is building a permanent apparatus to oppose the war policy in these targeted areas."