WASHINGTON (AP) - The liberal MoveOn.org, a leader of an anti-Iraq war coalition, is asking supporters to help pay for free phone calling cards for soldiers overseas in a partnership with the United Service Organizations, the charity that has helped troops for more than six decades.
MoveOn.org e-mailed about 3.3 million people on its e-mail list Thursday with the request to donate $15, the cost to buy one phone card for USO's Operation Phone Home program. That program began in 2003, the same year that the war started.
"MoveOn members are committed to seeing our troops come home as quickly as possible and we'll keep working to make that happen. But right now, supporting the USO is a simple way to make a genuine difference in the lives of brave men and women who've sacrificed a lot for our country," the e-mail said.
In September, MoveOn created a furor, angering even Democratic supporters, with a paid advertisement in The New York Times ahead of congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, about the status of President Bush's war strategy. The ad said: "General Petraeus, or General Betray Us?"
A spokesman for USO said the private group, which has close ties to the Defense Department, worked with MoveOn.org in creating the e-mail message "to ensure that it was very clear that the USO was nonpartisan."
"Any time you're dealing with an organization that's political in nature, you're always concerned that somebody would be affected who doesn't share those political views," Mark Phillips said. But the USO is a "grass-roots volunteer organization _ we really do need the support of Americans from across the board," he added.
If the USO has a potential partner who is willing to provide support in a nonpartisan way, "that opens the door to a partnership," Phillips said. "It's important to note that our full purpose is to support the active duty troops and their families."
With the MoveOn.org donations, USO will buy and pass out the phone cards. In Iraq and Afghanistan, they can last about 45 minutes in talking time, Phillips said.
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