A new ad campaign ties American oil dependence to Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and IEDs, making the security case for Congress to pass a climate and energy bill this year. The ads, from progressive veteran group VoteVets, show Iraq war veteran Christopher Miller over images of explosions and armed insurgents. The argument: this isn’t just about polar bears and melting ice caps. Passing energy legislation is an issue of national defense.
“That’s the type of IED that earned me a purple heart in Iraq six years ago,” says Miller, as images of military vehicles exploding run behind him. And every time oil goes up a dollar, he says, hostile countries like Iran get “another $1.5 billion to use against us.”
“Connection between oil and the enemy couldn’t be clearer,” Miller continues. “We need to break that connection by breaking our addiction. And we can by passing a clean energy climate plan. It would cut our dependence on foreign oil in half.”
The ads are running in eight states and the District of Columbia. VoteVets released similarly provocative ads last month tying the Detroit bomber to energy concerns. Here’s the ad:
