Vets For Freedom

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Vets For Freedom is an American political advocacy organization founded in 2006 by veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars. Its stated purpose is advocacy of victory in America's ongoing War on Terrorism, and support of candidates with positions consistent with this goal[clarification needed]. Vets For Freedom is a non-profit organization. Vets for Freedom PAC is an associated, but separate tax-exempt, nonpartisan political action committee.

Activities

Organizational work

Spokesmen for VFF appear on televised news shows and write op-ed pieces for newspapers. The organization has also issued a number of press releases. Vets for Freedom sponsored a full-page political ad in the Hartford Courant on August 14, 2006[1] endorsing Democratic US Senator Joe Lieberman and embarked on a television advertising campaign in Connecticut supportive of his reelection.[2][3][4] Additionally, they financed an ad campaign in Georgia to support embattled Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall in 2006. He won by the smallest margin of any Democratic congressman that year.[5]

In March 2008 Vets for Freedom launched a nationwide event called the "National Heroes Tour." The trip made national news when a scheduled event was canceled by Forest Lake High School in Minnesota. Many media outlets such as the Drudge Report picked up the story and the school was flooded by emails and phone calls of protest.

Vets on the Hill I and II

On Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Vets for Freedom took part in a breakfast on the south lawn of the White House with President George W. Bush, the First Lady, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Following the program, over 250 members of the organization lobbied members of the U.S. House and Senate to "support Gen. Petraeus and the War in Iraq" and to ask them to denounce MoveOn.org's attack on "General Betray-us." A 3 p.m. rally near the Capitol that day featured speeches from Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn. Remarks were also made by Rep. Roy Blunt.

One day later Senator Jim Webb's amendment to reduce troop rotation levels failed by four votes. The amendments was called a "slow bleed amendment" by critics. Vets for Freedom was strongly opposed to the legislation and lobbied aggressively for its defeat.

Vets for Freedom held a second Vets on the Hill in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, April 8, 2008. Over 450 Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans attended the program and met with senators and representatives from every state. Vets for Freedom claimed it was the largest gathering on Capitol Hill of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. A rally was held at 8:30am edt that featured speeches from Sen. John McCain, Sen. Joe Lieberman, and Rep. Jim Marshall. 27 media outlets covered the event which was held the same day as Gen. Petraeus' testimony before the Senate. Earlier in the day at a breakfast program Vets for Freedom members heard motivational speeches from retired Gen. Richard Myers, a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and current Georgetown men's basketball coach John Thompson III.

2008 presidential campaign

In October 2008, Veterans for Freedom paid for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign criticizing the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. The group accuses the Democratic presidential nominee of caring more about his campaign than about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.[6] Previously, Vets for Freedom aired other advertisements criticizing Senator Obama's position on the Iraq War.[7]

On October 10, 2008 Veterans for Freedom released a Senate Analysis scorecard.[8] In the VFF scorecard, every single Democratic senator was given the lowest possible grade of F. Three Republican senators were graded F, and 38 Republican senators received the grade of A+. VFF gave Sen Obama the score of 0.5%, or second lowest, and gave his running mate Sen Joe Biden the score of 0.0%, tying him for last place with Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. John McCain received a score of 93.5% and the grade of A-.

2010 congressional campaign

In a campaign called "Operation 10-in-10," Vets for Freedom backed 10 Republican congressional candidates in the 2010 congressional elections. (Italicized denotes successful run.) The Iraq and Afghanistan veterans running for office included Allen West (FL-22), Steve Stivers (OH-15), Jonathan Paton (AZ-8), Ilario Pantano (NC-7), Adam Kinzinger (IL-11), Joe Heck (NV-3), Chris Gibson (NY-20), Brian Rooney (MI-7), Kevin Calvey (OK-5), and Tim Griffin (AR-2).[9]

Founders

  • Wade Zirkle is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and served two deployments to Iraq with Marine infantry units as a Lieutenant. He fought in the First Battle of Fallujah as a platoon leader. Eight Marines under his command were killed in action. Zirkle was severely burned by a suicide car-bomb in Fallujah in 2004.[10]
  • David Bellavia is a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who served in the 1st Infantry Division (Task Force 2-2). He was recommended for the Medal of Honor, nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross, and received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star (v), and the Conspicuous Service Cross. In 2006 he was invited to attend the President's State of the Union address as an honored guest. Bellavia has been the subject to some notoriety in the military for action he took on November 10, 2004, where he singlehandedly stormed a house full of insurgent fighters at night. He not only fought the attacking insurgents off, he managed to kill them all. Out of ammunition, Bellavia stabbed the last attacking insurgent to death with his pocketknife in hand to hand combat.[11][12]
In 2004, Bellavia was the subject of a Time Magazine cover story titled "Into the Hot Zone"[13] which won a Pulitzer Prize.[14] According to Publishers Weekly, Bellavia secured a book deal with Simon & Schuster.[15] The book was titled House to House,[16] and was published in September 2007.
Zirkle and cofounder David Bellavia, now a writer, returned to Iraq as civilian reporters in 2006 and embedded with the Iraqi Army in Ramadi. Their articles were published in the Philadelphia Inquirer[17] and the Weekly Standard.[18]
Bellavia and Zirkle appear regularly on CNN and Fox News Channel as representatives of Vets for Freedom to offer commentary on the Global War on Terror.

Political connections

  • In 2006 Vets for Freedom supported three candidates for office; Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), and Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO.)
  • As of May 2008, Vets for Freedom was supporting five candidates for the House of Representatives, all of them Republicans who have served in the armed forces.[29]
  • Zirkle was a regional field director for Republican Jerry Kilgore's unsuccessful 2005 campaign for governor of Virginia.[30]
  • A "key Vets for Freedom adviser is Bill Andresen, a Democrat and former chief of staff to embattled Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut."[31]
  • Among the Vets for Freedom advisors are Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol and former Iraqi Coalition Provisional Spokesman Dan Senor.[32]

Funding

VFF has applied for status as a tax-exempt nonprofit, but as of June 2006 the application was not approved. Zirkle said that "Initial funding came from family members and friends."[30] It is now a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization.[33]

Vets for Freedom states on their homepage[34] "We depend on small donations from our thousands of supporters across America."

The National Journal has reported that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the third richest man in America, has made a significant donation to Vets For Freedom.[35]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Vets for Freedom
  3. ↑ Vets for Freedom
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Vets for Freedom media center
  8. ↑ [3]
  9. ↑ http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/vets-freedom-backs-10-iraqafghanistan-veterans-running-2010 Weekly Standard: Vets for Freedom Backs 10 Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans Running in 2010
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ BLACKFIVE: SSG David Bellavia - Someone You Should Know Radio
  12. ↑ The Greatest Generation | Redstate
  13. ↑ Into the Hot Zone
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Vets for Freedom
  15. ↑ Deals - 9/25/2006 - Publishers Weekly
  16. ↑ House to House
  17. ↑ [4]
  18. ↑ Birth of an Army
  19. ↑ www.westwrite.com, Francis West, Owen West
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ BLACKFIVE: Vets taking on Murtha and Moran
  22. ↑ YouTube - Mark Seavey Confronts Murtha
  23. ↑ Transcript of CNN interview
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ [5]
  26. ↑ Stars and Stripes
  27. ↑ [6]
  28. ↑ [7]
  29. ↑ Vets For Freedom PAC
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Jerry Zremski, "Former vets with GOP ties boost war effort in blogs", Buffalo News, June 25, 2006
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Vets for Freedom donation page
  34. ↑ VetsForFreedom.org
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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