Our Sons, On The Front Lines

MoveOn.org has created a new controversial ad airing in select states and a few national cable channels in which a new mother recruits her toddler son into the anti-Iraq war fight.
"“Hi, John McCain. This is Alex. He’s my first," says the mom. “So far, his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That and making my heart pound every time I look at him.
"So, John McCain,” she concludes, “when you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

It is a powerful spot and worthy of debate, especially since MoveOn is the group responsible for the distasteful and pointless newspaper ad calling General John Petraeus "General Betray-Us." Insofar as their goal is to stir debate and keep the Iraq war on the national agenda, they are doing their job, although they do seem to succeed in more discussion about MoveOn than about Iraq. When your top goal is fundraising, maybe that's not a bad thing.
In Monday's Times, Nicholas Kristoff, in a rare, right-wing perspective to establish even handedness, slams the ad as an attack on military service in general. "The ad boldly embraces a vision of a selfish and infantilized America, suggesting that military service and sacrifice are unnecessary and deplorable relics of the past. And the sole responsibility of others."
This ending, while cute, makes no sense since the "others" he refers to are also American who obviously feel otherwise.
Kristoff quotes a soldier's mother as saying "someone has to stand between our society and danger. if not my son, then who?"
Both Kristoff and the mother are pretending the ad bashes military service in general when it plainly speaks specifically about the Iraq war. Alex's mother mentions McCain's quote, taken well out of context, that he'd be prepared to keep U.S. troops in Iran for 100 years if necessary. While the rest of McCain's quote qualifies that, saying that's assuming troops aren't being hurt or killed (a naive expectation for a military man) it is fair to scrutinize this view and object to the notion that unborn, future soldiers, and those who are Alex's age, may one day be sent (whether they volunteer or are conscripted in a future draft) to continue a war that has not made any sense to a majority of Americans, has not proven to have improved our national security, and appears to be a colossal strategic error. The loved ones of our troops serving in Iraq, particularly those who have been dealt the ultimate pain of loss, have to grapple with the painful question of exactly for what their loved one was sacrificed.
It is a well-worn tactic for supporters of a war to brand opponents as critics who would oppose any war, any time, and all forms of military intervention. To package this ad as doing so is to miss its point, and sidestep the debate.