I came across a new veteran's organization on MSNBC and on NBC News called "Operation Truth." While their cause is noble, the way they are promoting themselves is, at best, suspect....


Dear Friends,


Like probably millions of Americans I read about Operation Truth online, and was actually considering linking it to my own website which gets a lot of hits.


But after seeing the television ad with Robert Acosta, the vet who regrettably lost his arm in combat, I'm sure that I reflect the opinions of a lot of Americans that the ad shoots your cause into the foot. While Robert's injury is horrible, I can help but think aobut the vets who don't go on television whining about their injuries. The commercial begs the question why did Robert Acosta go into the military in the first place...did he expect it to be Club Med or just an opportunity to win the right to wear a uniform (which in his case would be more like a costume). This armchair politics doesn't wear well, very honestly, and really sounds like partisan politics, which is against federal rules for a so-called non-profit/non-partisan organization. Acosta's words are more of those of a someone whining and trying gain our sympathy because of his injury to push a political agenda rather than "educat(ing) the American public about the truth of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the perspective of the soldiers who have experienced them first-hand."


Why are you also taking advantage of the persona of former Gov. Jesse Ventura? His own military career is suspect...something the media has tried ot get the straight truth about but hasn't been able to. He is universally hated as a political figure because of the mess he created in Minnesota which he eventually ran away from...and he now appears in ads here in California denegrating our very popular Governor who has accomplished more in one year that former Gov. Ventura did during his term as governor.


Your organization has valid concerns as it involves the current war situation and a noble cause in your stated mission statement which I agree with...but as someone in public relations and marketing...I can professionally say you are shooting yourself in the foot by representing yourself in the media as you have.I will be placing a copy of this note on my personal blog so that others may see it.


Ivars Bezdechi
San Diego, CA