Musings on some key issues (feel free to comment) and also some links to past columns–that suggest, at least sometimes, I do get it right!
General Petreaus and MoveOn.org:
MoveOn.org has received some scathing critiques for its full page ad in the New York Times on the day of General Petraeus’s testimony in the House (Sept. 10). Americans would like to think their military commanders are above politics. I share deep reservations about how MoveOn.org used a catchy headline of “General Petraeus or General Betray Us: Cooking the Books for the White House” to garner attention.
It worked–a kinder, gentler ad would have been ignored. The aftermath creates far more heat than light, but it creates an important political opening for Democrats to move into the middle of the mess and seem more reasonable, but it also provides fodder for Republicans to pull the focus to the ad’s characterization of Petraeus rather than the more meaningful issue of Iraq.
General Petraeus may have honorable intentions, but he’s not above criticism. General Petraeus has served this country for 30 years. However, in Iraq he’s been a long and wrong advocate of our failed policy there—and even chose to indirectly publicly endorse President Bush in the 2004 Presidential campaign by writing an op-ed in the Washington Post just 40 days before the election day providing a glowing picture of progress in Iraq that proved incorrect.
Perhaps the greatest irony of all were the deaths in Iraq days ago of two service men, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28, who along with five others co-authored an opinion piece, “The War as We Saw It,” in the New York Times last month that stood in sharp contrast to Petraeus’ account, including, “As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.” Read the rest of this entry »