Anti-war planes buzz GOP debate

Ryan Grim
The Politico
Friday May 04, 2007 

Two planes are circling the sky above the GOP presidential candidates' debate tonight, dragging anti-war banners.

Funded and organized by an anti-war coalition -- Americans Against Escalation in Iraq -- the small aircraft are pulling banners reading “McCain, Mission Accomplished” and “Republicans, Mission Accomplished?”

The planes were set to circle the event throughout the duration of the debate, which is being hosted by MSNBC and Politico.com and being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.

The anti-war coalition includes the Service Employees International Union -- a major labor organization -- as well as MoveOn.org and a number of prominent liberal and anti-war organizations.

Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln four years ago, President Bush declared that the United States and its allies had “prevailed” in Iraq, standing before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” War opponents have used the phrase as fodder for nearly four years now.

Activists behind the event hope to tie the Republican candidates to President Bush’s war policy.

Though the coalition is composed mostly of liberal groups, Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org, a coalition member, said he would be open to a Republican president -- just not any of these 10 candidates.

“They don’t have anybody on that stage who’s qualified to be the commander in chief,” he said.

“Unless they have (Nebraska Sen.) Chuck Hagel standing up there, who’s a combat veteran who might run for president, I don’t think, as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that they have someone capable of protecting America.”

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