American Legion and VFW Launch Pro-War Lobby & PR Campaigns

The Boston Globe reports "the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation's oldest and most influential veterans' organizations, have broken their relative silence on the merits of the Iraq war, joining some of the staunchest war supporters to lobby Congress and the public... Both organizations, which the White House has aggressively courted" are "recruiting members to argue for the surge strategy at town hall meetings, and have made their leaders available to the national media to declare that victory is still within reach. ... 'They have been speaking out more strongly than in the past,' said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads Vets for Freedom, which supports the surge." Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank "that helps coordinate pro-war groups" told the Globe, 'we need to work very hard to educate both members of Congress and the general public.' " May is also active in Committee on the Present Danger, the Project for the New American Century, and was the Republican National Committee's Director of Communications. SourceWatch now contains a new article on the pro-war lobby.