Salon: "Bush lied, my son died" (new Kerry ads)

[kskiska]

In excruciating new TV ads, family members of soldiers killed in Iraq speak out about the horrible waste of their loved ones' lives.

By Michelle Goldberg

In a TV commercial released Wednesday, Cindy Sheehan, a 47-year-old woman from Vacaville, Calif., whose 24-year-old son was killed in Sadr City in April, speaks directly to George W. Bush.

Shot in black-and-white, her soft voice cracking, she says, "I imagined it would hurt if one of my kids was killed, but I never thought it would hurt this bad, especially someone so honest and brave as Casey, my son. When you haven't been honest with us, when you and your advisors rushed us into this war. How do you think we felt when we heard the Senate report that said there was no link between Iraq and 9/11?"

(snip)

Real Voices is spending $200,000 on its initial ad buy while trying to raise more money. Each one of the spots is bitter and searing. In one, Raphael Zappala, whose 30-year-old brother was killed in Baghdad while searching a warehouse for weapons of mass destruction, says, "My brother died trying to make an honest man out of George W. Bush, needlessly. He was betrayed by the lies of his commander in chief. And the troops still in Iraq are being betrayed." Another features a California mother named Jane Bright, who remains livid about Bush's rash "Bring 'em on!" challenge. "Mr. Bush," she says, "I have no way of knowing whether the insurgent who killed my son ever heard your foolish taunt. But thanks to you, Mr. President, I have the rest of my life to wonder about it."

Sheehan tells Salon that she has never been politically active before. But speaking out against Bush is a way to assuage a tiny bit of the futility she feels about her son's death. "I need to speak out for what I think is right, and I have this chance right now because people want to listen to me," she says. "If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning or face a new day, because every day for me is like a new April 4, when my son was killed."

Since her son died, Sheehan has tormented herself for not doing more to fight Bush four years ago. "My biggest regret in my entire life is that when Bush was selected as president by the Supreme Court that I didn't go out and say, 'No, this is B.S., we can't stop this election until we count every single vote.' I just regret it so much. I don't know if I did something more maybe my son would still be alive."

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/30/realvoices/index.html

[jn2375]

1. I saw the ad and cryed my eyes out. It was the most

powerful ads I have ever seen in my lifetime.

[RamboLiberal]

2. Photo of a mother kissing the flag draped coffin of her son

A FINAL GOODBYE: Perri Sue Henry kisses the casket of her son, Army Spc. Joshua Justice Henry, during a funeral service at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Apollo yesterday. Spc. Henry was killed by small arms fire in Iraq when his convoy was ambushed Sept. 20. His mother gave the eulogy at the service.

[countmyvote4real]

3. This is the real story.

Question: Why does a grass roots organization have to raise funds to tell it in commercial increments that must be purchased?

Question: What’s stopping the cable media networks from producing and airing a long form piece on the grief and outrage we have for the needless deaths of our fallen soldiers? What’s preventing the broadcast media from doing so like the finally did with their Vietnam reports? How many have to die before it is news?

Question: How close are we to becoming fascist state or are we there already?

Comment: So in a democracy like this (alluding to the above questions), who needs democracy?

[Tamyrlin79]

4. Where are these ads playing?

Some strategic location, I assume...