Vets Ad Slams McCain

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., staunch support for the Iraq war will be criticized Tuesday in a television ad featuring Maj. Gen. John Batiste.

The ad will air on the Fox News Channel immediately following Tuesday’s 90-minute FNC-sponsored debate which begins at 9:00 pm ET and takes places in Columbia, SC.

Batiste claims in the ad that McCain is protecting President Bush instead of protecting America.

Vote Vets, a group working to end the Iraq war, paid $25,000 to air this anti-McCain ad just one time. It is the latest in a series of ads that Batiste has made for the group. Before quitting the Army in protest, Batiste commanded the First Infantry Division in Iraq. Batiste did not raise his objections while serving in Iraq.

McCain, whose support for a policy of rogue-state rollback pre-dates 9/11, has coupled his support for the Iraq war with criticism of U.S. troop levels in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

Even though McCain is the only Republican presidential candidate singled out in this ad, it should be noted that his top rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination – former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. – have also supported the recent U.S. troop surge in Iraq.