For Immediate Release                & nbsp;               & nbsp;
Date: January 26, 2007       &nb sp;       &nbs p;         ;          & nbsp;     

Iraq War Veterans Against Escalation to Tour U.S. on “Fly Around”

Urging Key Senators to Join the Troops and Stop the Escalation in Iraq

VoteVets.org, AAEI Launch National, State-Based Ads Featuring Iraq Vets Against Bush Escalation Plan, Barnstorm MN, IN, PA, OH, ME, NH, and VA on Fly Around Monday and Tuesday Next Week

Washington– As part of the Anti-Escalation campaign Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, Iraq War veterans with VoteVets.org will embark Monday on a two-day, seven state, eight stop fly around to unveil a new television ad urging the Senate to join the troops and stop the escalation of the war in Iraq.  The veterans on the plane will be met by other veterans on the ground in each state to a hold a press conference, unveil the national and in-state ads and make the case emphatically that being with the troops means opposing escalation – a strategy which Bush has tried before and failed.  

The Bush-McCain escalation plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq has been met with strong opposition in Congress and from senior military leaders, the Iraq Study Group, and the American public. The bipartisan Hagel-Biden resolution against escalation passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday and is expected to go to the full Senate in the next couple of weeks.  But several key Senators, including members of the Foreign Relations Committee who have expressed disagreement with the President’s escalation plan, failed to support the anti-escalation resolution.  The tour will touch down in the following cities and states targeting the following Senators:

Monday

Ø      Minneapolis, Minnesota, Senator Norm Coleman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Ø      Indianapolis, Indiana, Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Republican, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Ø      Columbus, Ohio, Senator George Voinovich, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Tuesday

Ø      Portland, Maine, Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – Collins serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee

Ø      Manchester, New Hampshire, Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu – Sununu serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Ø      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Senator Arlen Specter

Ø      Norfolk and Richmond, VA, Senator John Warner, Ranking Republican on Senate Armed Service Committee

In addition to a national ad which will be unveiled at each stop, television ads which mention Senators by name calling on them to oppose the escalation will be unveiled and will run in Virginia (Warner), New Hampshire (Gregg and Sununu) and Indiana (Lugar.)     

Jon Soltz, National Chairman of VoteVets.org, will lead a small delegation of Iraq war veterans on the tour to urge Senators to stop the Bush Escalation plan that would place more troops in the crosshairs of a civil war.  VoteVets is a founding partner of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a national campaign committed to opposing the Bush-McCain plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops into a civil war in Iraq.