Should We Believe Petraeus . . . Or MoveOn.org?

Here is the text of the execrable MoveOn.org ad that slanders General David
Petraeus, on the day he testifies before Congress:

"General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts.
In 2004, just before the election, he said there was “tangible progress”
in Iraq and that “Iraqi leaders are stepping forward.” And last week
Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq, said, “We
say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we
can to build on that progress.”

Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge
strategy has failed. Yet the General claims a reduction in violence. That’s
because, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre
formula for keeping tabs on violence. For example, deaths by car bombs don’t
count. The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you’re
shot in the back of the head — not the front. According to the Associated
Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths
in the past three months than in any other summer we’ve been there. We’ll
hear of neighborhoods where violence has decreased. But we won’t hear that
those neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed.

Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq
is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war. We may hear of a plan to withdraw
a few thousand American troops. But we won’t hear what Americans are desperate
to hear: a timetable for withdrawing all our troops. General Petraeus has actually
said American troops will need to stay in Iraq for as long as ten years.

Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is
likely to become General Betray Us."

Go and read David
Petraeus’ op-ed piece from 2004 in which he states we have made ‘tangible
progress’ in Iraq. The general lays out a lot of specifics that MoveOn.org does
not, and cannot, challenge. Petraeus was not saying that things were all rosy
in Iraq – he was simply laying out some of our successes there.

That does not put him ‘at war with the facts’ as MoveOn hopes you will believe
- that just puts him at odds with MoveOn’s radical creed that no progress of
any kind is possible, ever, in Iraq, and that if you state otherwise, you are
a liar and a traitor. This is a superstitious belief among the anti-war crowd,
not an actual investigation of facts.

As for the surge strategy failing, well, MoveOn.org is completely invested
in that narrative, but of course it is completely wrong. Anbar province has
been pacified. Baquba has been pacified. Deaths by car bombs are down, in fact
- there hasn’t been a major attack involving large casualties in quite some
time. As for casualties among our troops . . . the strategy is called The Surge,
with troops pouring in to pacify the country (Baghdad specifically). It was
expected to raise casualty rates, and it has, but not to the extent predicted.

More:

MoveOn.org
Calls Petraeus a Traitor – Pete Hegseth, Weekly Standard.

Has
MoveOn Betrayed the Democratic Party? – Byron York, NRO.

"A general who "betrays us" is a traitor, like Benedict Arnold.
Now that it’s OK to question people’s patriotism, can we start with MoveOn?"
says John
Hinderacker.

Update: Reporting to Congress by General David Petraeus.

Update: Confederate Yankee informs us that the New York Times gave MoveOn.org a hefty 61% discount on the ad.

Crossposted from WILLisms.com