(Video) Washington insider group uses soldiers to promote war

We are in for a hard-fought war debate in the month of September.  Before Labor Day weekend, the nonpartisan CBO will release its analysis on the situation.  Less than two weeks later, General David Petraeus will read the White House's report.  A number of Republicans up for reelection in 2008 will need to decide whether to jump ship and support the Democrats' proposal of withdrawing troops, or follow in lockstep with the President's stay the course strategy.  A conservative group is trying to prevent the former from happening.

The Washington-based group Freedom's Watch is unveiling television ads in certain television markets in hope of preventing Republicans who are on the fence from backing troop redeployment.  They invoke 9/11, and state unequivocally that the US will get attacked if we leave Iraq.  There are four ads.  Let's go through each one:

1) "They attacked us, and they will again."

2) "We're dealing with the safety of our country, of our sacred United States of America."

3) "We've already had one 9/11, we don't need another."

4) "Switching their votes now for political reasons, it will mean more attacks in America."

This strategy is nearly identical to the one that the swift boat group implemented in 2004 against John Kerry.  Get experienced DC-based political operatives, and parade soldiers in front of the camera to tout whatever message across.  It's quite effective, in that it will probably cause at least a few Republicans to buckle.

And because soldiers are the ones saying it, the lines that these PR people are feeding them can go farther than the most right-wing lawmakers.  They tell us that we will get hit again if we pull out.  Kind of like what Cheney said in 2004 about what would happen if Kerry got elected:

"If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hitagain -- that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from thestandpoint of the United States," Cheney said.

This Freedom's Watch group has Ari Fleischer, the former White House Press Secretary, as its PR person.  So you can see why Cheney-like tactics are being used.

Please email your two Senators, and tell them not to let Washington insiders like Freedom's Watch fool them into supporting the President on what has been a failed policy from the beginning.