Assembly candidate Dawn Ortiz-Legg owes veterans an apology

I’m still waiting for Dawn Ortiz-Legg to denounce the vicious, anti-military tirades made by the organization she helped found in San Luis Obispo County, “Code Pink.”

Both my son and I served in Iraq in 2004 and were met upon our return by the same anti-military attacks made against returning Vietnam veterans. I also served multiple combat tours in Vietnam and upon my return, like many veterans, was met with overt hostility and, at best, indifference.

Code Pink as an organization made disparaging comments about both the war and the military personnel who served. Members of the local chapter of Code Pink, which Dawn Ortiz-Legg co-founded, compared our troops to being “no better than Nazis” while smearing the armed forces with charges of being “war criminals,” an assertion Ms. Ortiz-Legg made herself in an interview in 2010. These disparagements were made to me personally by local Code Pink members at a time when Americans were fighting terrorists who routinely slaughtered civilians, even torturing children to death.

Dawn Ortiz-Legg can’t have it both ways by simply pandering to veterans to enhance her election prospects. Ms. Ortiz-Legg: Denounce Code Pink and apologize to veterans or stop pretending you are anything else but an anti-military, left-wing extremist using veterans as props in your campaign.

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Assembly candidate Dawn Ortiz-Legg owes veterans an apology."