Exploitation of Troop Danger Drives Antiwar DNC Advertisement

I wrote earlier on the Democratic National Committee's recent campaign spot attempting to smear John McCain for some alleged commitment to an "endless war" in Iraq (see here).

It turns out there's some controversy over the origins of the footage.

How'd the DNC get ahold of video showing U.S. soldiers being bombed by an IED in Iraq? Newsmax offers this:

The DNC ad ... shows an explosive device detonating near two soldiers standing beside a palm tree. The two soldiers disappear in an explosive fireball. The video also shows images of burning vehicles....

The footage appears similar to film taken by jihadists who videotape IED explosions that kill American combat troops. The jihadists place the video on the internet to tout their "kill Americans" campaign success. The Army estimates that more than 6,500 jihadist Web sites promote violence against America and American troops.

Many U.S. media outlets have refused to air excerpts from such videos for several reasons - including out of respect of the servicemen and women depicted in the videos.

The DNC apparently does not agree. Calls to the DNC for comment and for information about the footage went unreturned.

Confederate Yankee raises an interesting observation on the Democratic Party thinking that goes into this style of political advocacy:

The soldiers are on screen for just a split-second, just long enough for viewers to see that there was an explosion, but not long enough to know if the soldiers pictured survived uninjured, if they were wounded, or if they were killed [Both soldiers survived].

More than 3 full decades after the last U.S. soldier left Saigon, the party of Bill Ayers still revels in the imagery of blowing up U.S. soldiers as part of their political expression.

I thought about this as well, when I first saw the spot.

Americans are dying for democratic consolidation in Iraq, and the DNC's all too eager to profit politically from violent images of U.S. service personnel in grave danger.

Allahpundit indicates the kind of outrage we'd be seeing if the advertising shoe was on the other foot:

If McCain [ran a spot of this sort] and inserted images of 9/11 jumpers in one of his ads, Arianna Huffington would need smelling salts and Olbermann would have to allot an extra hour for “Countdown” to accommodate his rage. Meanwhile, the DNC could show a Marine getting his head blown off and Chris Matthews would ask the Hardball panel, “Doesn’t America need to see this?”

See also, Gateway Pundit, "OUTRAGE!! DNC Supports Our "Blown Up" American Troops!"