Veteran wounded by Iranian bomb speaks out against nuke deal

Posted 2015-08-11 19:27 by Grunt Report

A group of U.S. military veterans opposed to the Iran nuclear deal released a TV advertisement on Monday, featuring an Iraq War veteran who was injured by an Iranian roadside bomb.

In the ad, retired Staff Sgt. Robert Bartlett recalls the 2005 incident, which left him badly disfigured.

“It cut me in half from the left corner of my temple down through my jaw; its took my gunner’s legs off,” he says in the ad. “Total devastation.”

The ad aims to serve as a reminder of Iran’s role in the deaths of at least 500 U.S. soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Islamic Republic supplied Shiite insurgents with deadly bombs like the one that took out Sgt. Bartlett’s Humvee.

“They’d kidnap little kids from neighboring villages and put bullets in their heads and killed them in front of their villagers and said, ‘we’re going to run our bombs out of here,’” Mr. Bartlett says of Iranian fighters in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “That’s who we’re making a deal with.”

In the ad, he says politicians voting to approve the nuclear deal will “have blood on their hands,” and will be responsible for contributing more money to terrorism.

A new report released last week estimates that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite military unit responsible for arming Iran’s terrorist proxies will receive a 50 percent budget increase once sanctions are lifted under the nuclear deal.

“A vote for this deal means more money for Iranian terrorism,” Mr. Bartlett says in the ad. “What do you think they’re gonna do with more money?”

The ad is sponsored by Veterans Against the Deal, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. The ad featuring Mr. Bartlett is the first of several the group plans to launch.

The ad targets Sen. Joe Tester, Montana Democrat, who is likely to vote in favor of the deal.