Heroes

I know that everyone -- sans the members of the 101st fighting keyboarders -- knows that we Dems love our Vets, and respect our military. That's one of many reasons many of us were against the Iraq war from the beginning, and what keeps us pounding away on our keyboards on topics from lack of ground troops, improper equipment, cuts to military benefits, and poor leadership/strategy on the part of those who send our troops off to war.

Enter the 'Midwest Heroes.'

We should all just respectfully, and dutifully shut up since they have loved ones in harm's way, or have lost family members in the war, right? That's what they hope, and perhaps might even be worthy of a bit of respect . . . if they were being honest in their ad campaign.

Ad No. 2 began airing Wednesday and features the mothers and fathers of four dead soldiers. The final mother figure in the ad tells the camera: "We have to finish this job to remember Erik's sacrifice, and all of the other fallen heroes." She is identified as M. J. Kesterson, and many viewers will assume she is the mother of Chief Warrant Officer Erik Kesterson, 29, a helicopter pilot killed in 2003 who figures prominently in the ad.

But she's not his mom.

M.J. Kesterson is married to Erik's father, who also appears in the ad, and she's Erik's stepmother. His mother is Dolores Kesterson, and the distinction is important because Dolores Kesterson is opposed to a war in which she believes her son died to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist and to avenge 9/11, which was not connected to Iraq.

Dolores, who is a member of Gold Star Families for Peace, voiced her opposition when she was granted a brief meeting with President Bush in 2004 and gave Bush a letter in which she wrote: "The label 'Iraqi Freedom' doesn't work for me. Iraq is not free. It is occupied, and now, after all the loss of life on both sides, they don't want us there."

So thanks all the same, but I'll continue to honor and respect my Midwest Heroes, and all the other service men and women from all over the nation. The best way I can do that is to fight like hell to keep them from becoming dead heroes.

Peace.