As images of smoke pouring from the World Trade Center flash by, Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson boils down the Iraq war to a battle to squash the al-Qaida terrorist network.
"You'd never know it from the news reports," Stephenson says firmly. "But our enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida, the same terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11, the same terrorists from the first World Trade Center bombing, the USS Cole, Madrid, London and many more." Stephenson, a Marine reservist from Woodbury who spent five months in Iraq, delivered his message as part of a television ad that debuted Thursday in Minnesota.
The 60-second spot aims to shore up support for the war by touting accomplishments, such as recent Iraqi elections.
It also mirrors President Bush's campaign to define the war as essential to national security, and ends with another soldier asking, "Where do you want to fight terrorists? We want to fight them and destroy them in Iraq."
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