Tempest, meet Teapot
The "General Betray Us" dust-up is really shining a spotlight on the leftie group MoveOn .. pretty good for an organization with just 17 employees, no central office and a director still in his 20s. Though they do claim a 3.3-million membership. I'm not one of them .. I am closer to the middle.
Too bad that MoveOn focused on the messenger rather than the actual issues .. they played right into the Bushies' hands. And it might have been more effective if they had put out the ad AFTER the testimony not BEFORE it.
MoveOn is mostly guilty of a bad pun on the general's name .. just a little too cute for me, athough I've probably made worse puns.
But, it has become a rallying cry for Republicans, I mean it's been on cable news 24/7 .. on all across the radio spectrum, right-wing shock jocks are having a case of the vapors. How could those despicable lefties say such a thing? It's outrageous .. disgraceful .. where's my scented hanky .. I think I'm going to .. oh, lawsy me ...
Like, when it comes to dirty tricks, misleading ads and smearing veterans, I don't think the Republicans have any right to say sh*t.
Anyway, the ad fuss has temporarily knocked the wind out of the Democrats as they try to craft something that will change the course of the Iraq war.
From thestar.com: "WASHINGTON–When America's largest liberal movement attacked a four-star general, some Democrats seemed to consider it nothing more than a well-liked uncle having too much to drink and blurting out something embarrassing.
But almost two weeks later, MoveOn.org is still dealing with a splitting hangover and is having trouble moving on. [..]"
I had thought the ad was poor form, but after Bush's little press conference and the Senate vote I don't know .. Bush gave more legitimacy to the questions asked in that ad than if he'd just kept his trap shut .. he clearly had his nose out of joint because Petraeus got called out.
Because, as far as I can tell, Petraeus DID cook his stats to make the surge look better. Example: He has an unusual way of counting the dead -- somehow where a bullet entered someone's head (front or back) shows sectarian intent. And if a Sunni kills another Sunni for "collaborating" with the Shiites, this is not sectarian. "Purely" sectarian is one enormous loophole.
The Washington Post has more: http://tinyurl.com/ysuobg
Just answer me this simple question -- Has the number of killings (no matter the reason) decreased? Period. If ethnic violence is really down dramatically, then the total should at least decrease.
So if the bodies keep piling up, regardless of why they were killed, then the surge has not improved the "security situation."
If your friends and loved ones continue to be shot, stabbed or blown up at an alarming rate, do you care about the supposed intent of the attacker? No. Do you feel the "security situation" has improved? No. So why are we arguing about how the pencil pushers tally up the dead?
Dead is dead.
The surge has not been successful.
Bush put Petraeus in the impossible position of having to juggle his military judgement to fit this administration's political needs.
Important things we need to know about counter-insurgency:
1--If you're counting bodies to determine if you're winning, you are losing.
2--If 60 percent of the population thinks attacks on you are 'justified', you've lost.
1--If you're counting bodies to determine if you're winning, you are losing.
2--If 60 percent of the population thinks attacks on you are 'justified', you've lost.
So, let the Republicans holler and bitch about the MoveOn ad, hold hearings and vote to condemn it in the Senate .. it's all they've got.
The ad fuss was used to deflect attention away from the real problem -- Iraq is still a disaster, and extremely difficult to disengage from without humiliation. The Bush administration and their Republican allies in Congress are both responsible for that.
Not the Democrats, not General Petraeus and not MoveOn.
