General Betray Us
MoveOn.Org is plumbing new depths:
Tomorrow–as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress–the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: “General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House.”
Let’s be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has ‘betrayed’ his country. This is disgusting. To attack as a traitor an American general commanding forces in war because his ‘on the ground’ experience does not align with MoveOn.org’s political objectives is utterly shameful. It shows contempt for America’s military leadership, as well as for the troops who have confidence in him, as our fellow soldiers in Iraq certainly do.
General Petraeus has served this country for over 35 years with honor, distinction, and integrity. And this is not just about General Petraeus. After all, if General Petraeus is “cooking the books,” then the entire military chain of command in Baghdad, and all the staff, military and civilian, who have been working with General Petraeus are complicit, since Petraeus did not write his report in isolation. They are all, apparently, ‘betray[ing] us.’
MoveOn.org has been working closely with the Democratic congressional leadership –as an article in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine makes clear. And consider this comment by a Democratic senator from Friday’s Politico: “‘No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,’ noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. ‘The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.’
If that doesn’t make you angry, nothing will.
Posted by Kathy
September 10th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Moveon.org needs to move on. There are planes, trains and buses leaving every day.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Treacherous vermin Kathy, that’s what they are. Would be nice if Petraeus and a couple of marines could head over to moveon.whatever and ‘take out the trash’.
September 11th, 2007 at 4:04 am
I think paying so much attention to MoveOn.org is a waste of our time. Plus, I think that many people are framing this argument the wrong way… The Democrats are not, and have never been, the anti-war party - it’s been the opposite, in fact. U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), the current Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is a San Francisco liberal. He is also perhaps the most pro-war person in Congress, of any party.
His Republican counterpart (before the Democrats took control of Congress), the highly-esteemed U.S. Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL), opposed the Iraq war, and opposed the neoliberal and neoconservative foreign policy vision, that got us into this mess.
What MoveOn.org is doing is disrespectful… and I definitely oppose that organization.
However, I am skeptical about much of what is in the General’s report.
As I have pointed out numerous times in the past… The top Democrats in America today are not truly anti-war… far from it, in fact.
Prior to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, I asserted that, if John Kerry were elected, we could actually have more warfare and military interventionism than if Bush were to be re-elected. Several others [including both supporters and opponents of the Iraq war, and of President Bush], agreed with this.
And before the 2006 Congressional elections, I made the same type of argument, regarding the Democrats and the Republicans.
And now, I just saw an article featured at The Hill, showing that several of the hawkish Democrats, who have gotten Chairmanships, due to their party’s takeover of Congress, and who I named there, were the same ones heaping lavish praise, earlier today, on General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
The pro-war, anti-war, and partisan reactionary segments of the American Left can attempt to pursue their destructive policies - many of which have been seized up, and even embraced, but today’s “conservatives,” along with the present White House, and much of the GOP leadership. Thankfully though, there are many on the Right, and in the Republican Party, who do not support these policies.
Ultimately, it may be the battle within the Right, over these vital contemporary foreign and domestic policy issues, that determines what direction our nation will go.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
You have GOT to be kidding.
First off, The MoveOn(already losers).org clowns are big funderaisers for the Dems, so yes, they merit attention.
Second, the DEMS are MORE hawkish? Ridiculous. If your arguments are true, then why are they doing everything they can to stop the war? Why are they obstructing every step of the way? And what are your qualifications for being skeptical of what the general says in his report?
September 12th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Big Mo,
Thank you for responding to my comment. The questions you ask are all addressed, in more depth, at the links I provided.
To put it as briefly as possible: For many of the top Democrats, it is not about being anti-war. It is about unprincipled opportunism, and exploiting situations for political gain. Many of these so-called “anti-war” Democrats were advocating military intervention in Iraq (as well as other places) before President Bush was… When President Bush made the decision to go to war, and the public later started turning against it, many of these Democrats changed their positions. (Notice how so many of them became “anti-war” around election time?) A lot of it also has to do with the fact that a Republican (who many of their supporters despise) is in the White House. But many of the policies implemented in Iraq by President Bush (the preemption doctrine, nation building, WMD claims, the troop surge, etc…) were earlier advocated by the Democrats, when it was politicaly opportune for them [that way, they could be opposing the President, which they love to do, especially around election time].
Many of the weblogs I see to the right (on the blogroll here) have pointed out the very things that I just said above, as have Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
When we were at the College Republicans national convention this summer, David Horowitz gave a pro-war speech, in which he pointed out these same issues, about the Democrats, and their partisan hypocrisy.
That is a ‘brief’ response to the question you asked… As I said, I dealt with this issue more in depth, in my past writings (and those include verifiable reference links, to sources for the information).
Thank you.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Aakash.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Pro and Anti-war is a misnomer. No-one is pro-war, especially the troops who have to fight it. The left is not anti-war, but, are anti-american.