An article on AntiWar.com by New York freelance writer Daniel Forbes claims Tom Ridge delayed for 17 months the $226 million Homeland Security advertising campaign to coincide with the launch of the Iraq war. Rather than launching the campaign months after 9/11 when it would have been most useful, it launched in February 2003 less than a month before the bombing of Iraq began thereby delaying delivery of important public health information. In an e-mail exchange, Forbes summarized his article by stating that — cloaked by the ostensible public service message of terrorism preparedness — the rhetoric in the ads served to whip up public sentiment for war.
