Delvo: Latest Ad Uses Misleading Line of Attack Against Heitkamp

A lot changed in Iraq between my first deployment in 2004 and my second in 2008. In 2004, we (Coalition Forces) were stuck in the middle of a festering hotbed over religion, politics and the growing pains of a country that hadn’t seen any form of democracy in over 30 years. It was amazing to witness Iraqis vote for the first time in over 30 years in January 2005, and without major incident.

Brandon Delvo

By 2008, much of our role was semi-political. The Iraqi Army and police had established a foothold with the assistance of coalition forces. And we were in more of an advisory role, Iraqis were given the lead in many combat scenarios. Our enemies still existed, but had managed to better blend in and adapt to our Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs). As an infantry vehicle commander, I was privy to knowing what our enemies were using against us and how they were adapting to our tactics. It was also during this deployment that numerous units uncovered “factories” of Explosively-Forced Penetrators (EFPs), in and around Baghdad. We had known that the insurgent groups using these were funded by Iran, but these IEDs were built in Iraq and used against us.

I left Iraq in 2009, and our combat troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011. More than a year before Heidi Heitkamp was elected to the U.S. Senate. So I find it absolutely astonishing the Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a pro-Israel organization, would run an ad blaming Senator Heitkamp for Iranian-backed IEDs before she was even elected. The Iranian nuclear deal is also wound up in this ad. But the beginnings of the deal go back to 2013, two years after combat troops left. This ad is false and as a veteran who dealt with the threat of Iranian-backed IEDS, Heidi Heitkamp had no part in this.

Submitted by Brandon Delvo. Delvo served two deployments in Iraq in 2004 and 2008.