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While many in the media would like to unquestioningly accept the White House narrative that General David Petraeus walks on water and that all of his claims about progress in Iraq are undoubtedly true, the fact is that Petraeus has a history of extremely bad judgment with regard to the war. In the above video, Glenn Greenwald outlines many of Petraeus's flawed assessments that have caused fellow military officers to dub him "General Betray Us."
It's time for the media to cease treating his statements with open-mouthed credulity, and for politicians in both parties to stop being rolled by the elaborate PR campaign he is leading on behalf of the administration. (Think Progress has a helpful graph which shows he spent 17 days in August flacking for the surge.) The American public wants an end to the war in Iraq and it's time that our elected officials realize that a vote for any funding bill that does not include binding timelines will only continue to bog us down in a deadly, ill-conceived endeavor which only a fool (or a knave) could think it possible to "win."
Please sign the petition to be delivered to the Democratic leadership, which says that we do not want the dissembling and statistical manipulation being put forward by Petraeus, Crocker and others to serve as an excuse for prolonging the war. It's time that they do their job and stand with the majority of the country to oppose this unpopular president and his fiasco of a war.
(Many thanks to David Olson who produces the BackTalk videoblogs and who dropped everything to get this ready in time for Petraeus's testimony. You can check his previous videos out here, here and here.)
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6
Jane!
Hey, Jane!
I swear my clock is off by at least five minutes.
Time to check on it.
Nope, it is correct.
{{{{Sweet Jane}}}}}
Even my ZED expectations have been lowered today, two more F.U.’s and the we win.
Congrats Steve-AR, but you were off by 5. *g*
and…?
Marcy’s all but predicting RGJoe will finally formally bolt the Dems over the moveon.org ad. He’s calling for the party leadership to publicly condemn moveon.org, which I can’t believe they’ll do.
“It’s time that they do their job and”
???
Steve-AR @ 1
Pretty confident, eh? I signed it Jane!!!
The Coming Iraq Extravaganza on The Hill
Bruce Ackerman:
snip
It was Maj Gen Lynch who was making the giant step into forbidden territory. He had no business engaging in a public debate with a US senator. His remarks represent an assault on the principle of civilian control – the most blatant so far during the Iraq war.
Nobody remarked on the breach. But this only makes it more troubling and should serve as prologue for the next large event in civilian-military relations: the president’s effort to manipulate General David Petraeus’s report to Congress.
Mr Bush has pushed Gen Petraeus into the foreground to shore up his badly damaged credibility. But in doing so, he has made himself a hostage. He needs the general more than the general needs him. Despite the president’s grandiose pretensions as commander-in-chief, the future of the Iraq war is up to Gen Petraeus.
Jane! Glenn! Petitions!
I expect the Republicans to be dancing to Gen. P’s tune. I do not want my party to roll over on the crap the General is spewing on behalf of Bush/Cheney. Come on Democrats, get with it!
Help get us out of Iraq now.
1. I understand why Christy or any other front-page poster would take offense at Rick Noriega’s comparison of progressive bloggers to Rush. I’d go to war over this also.
As a mere and humble commenter, I don’t give a fuck.
2. As for Code Pink: The more they piss-off people of whatever stripe, THE BETTER.
3. As for raven and james and other Viet Nam vets, my highest respect.
Over the last seven years I have seen the Democrats do more than few things I thought they’d never do.
Speaking of charts, you know Gen. Petraeus’ famous PowerPoint slide that appears to promise troop withdrawals (and ponies!) someday, without actually saying anything specific?
Here are here are a couple of must-see interpretations of it from commenters at Matt Yglesias’ place:
One from Royko, and another from cleek; both are brilliant.
And more shorter Davey
CrockettPetraeus:Hi Jane!
From my Senator Lautenberg. Love the use of the wrod propaganda.
Dear Jeff,
This week President Bush is going to unleash his latest propaganda effort to convince the American public we should stay in Iraq. In response, we need to send George W. Bush a clear message: “Enough is Enough.” Please join me and sign my online petition that calls on the President to end the deceit, end the propaganda and bring our troops home.
In the U.S. Senate I have voted consistently in favor of a timeline to bring our troops home from Iraq. But President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress have thwarted our efforts, vetoing and filibustering our proposals to end this debacle in Iraq.
Now, the Bush White House has written a slanted, self-serving and misleading report on Iraq under the guise of an official military assessment by Army General David Petraeus. The report’s findings have already been contradicted by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
Again, please join me in saying “Enough is Enough” to President Bush by signing my online petition. Enough of the deceit. Enough of the propaganda. It’s time to bring our troops home from Iraq.
Please sign on and I will send our petition straight to the White House.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Lautenberg
EPU’d - Check out Hillary confronting Petraeus prior to the surge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
Ed*ard Teller @ 9
Well gee whiz, if had known this is all would take much sooner. Perhaps I will email MM and let them know I am ready to contribute towards another ad.
I was off reading for awhile and a poster somewhere said Bush got cooked by Saddam because the amount of oil just isn’t there because (are you ready for it) Saddam was cooking the books. Can’t find it now…
Interesting though.
Bustednuckles @ 4
Wordpress is off by 3.
Ed*ard Teller @ 9
GOOD RIDDANCE…who needs the fool. Let him go.
LS @ 20
I’m not a big Hillary fan. I would prefer if she were not my candidate in 2008; but, man ain’t she one mean shark when she smells blood in the water. I would hate to come between her and the opportunity to make political hay.
signed the petition, sent it to ten friends. I left this comment, which I’d posted here this morning, but I feel even more strongly about now, having watched hours of this
charadeclusterfuck:This war started on July 25, 1990, when April Glaspie, on instructions from her boss, Secretary of State James Baker, told Saddam that disputes between Iraq and Kuwait were not the business of the USA. Since then, we’ve killed about 2,000,000, injured more, displaced twice as many, destroyed over 50% of urban dwellings, 70% of urban infrastructure, mushroomed birth defects from the detritus of our warmaking, ended the existence of the most highly educated set of females in the Middle East outside of Israel, turned almost 90% of Iraqi Christians into refugees, and destroyed the vast majority of their professional class.
Until our legislators understand this central set of facts, we are doomed to hear a succession of Petrauses and Crockers explain to agreeable or vaguely disagreeable politicians how the next few Friedman units are necessary.
I saw on a previous thread that The 1=$ for FDL. So $ to FDL.
Jonathan @ 15
Even if some of us are too dumb to figure out where to post!
Many of us would prefer “The General” to this general. How many went before this one that wouldn’t bow to the will of the admin? they were fired. some have spoken out. this one continues to lie. This one has forgotten Nuremburg.
Mon General, please, write this other general and do the voodoo that you do so well. We can’t trust anything he says as truth, knowing he has always lied. So much like the cornerstones of religiousity, you need to send them a little reminder.
I know the general reads this site. who doesn’t?
me, I can’t think of one thing that these two puppets could say that would be even potentially true. They have everything to gain from telling the truth. Their predecessors have all been fired for that.
“…Petraeus said that a unit of about 2,000 Marines will depart Iraq later this month, beginning a drawdown that would be followed in mid-December with the departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers.”
“After that, another four brigades would be withdrawn by July 2008, he said. That would leave the United States with about 130,000 troops in Iraq, roughly the number stationed there last winter when President Bush decided to dispatch additional forces.”
I signed and added the following statement:
Stop being played by the players. Get out of Iraq now. We cannot win nor can we lose what was never ours to begin with.
My $.02
Go, Girl, Go…!!! 8-)
Cripes. What a day.
Remember this song? Mr. Custer, Larry Verne.
raven @ 28
lol - does that make you dumber than a post?
{{{raven}}}
Ed*ard Teller @ 35
har hardy har!:)
ET@26
That pretty much outlines the horror of this administration’s action in the ME.
How depressing. We are the angel of death and destruction. We sow hatred where we should be sowing friendship.
How dare you lefty kooks question a military man? That is outrageous and beneath contempt.
We in the rightwing would NEVER insult a military man, unless it was George McGovern, John Kerry, Jack Murtha, Jimmy Carter, John Soltz or any of the Clinton generals that spoke out against George W. Bush.
-GSD
Signed and said enough with this cr*p (in more words than that), but ending ‘Enough with the Democratic leaders who won’t lead’ even with the country behind them pushing.
This is an absolutely hilarious video about the surge. A must see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
The lady from California has a stinger!
JH, who is the retired general who termed Petraeus “betray us”? your cite says officers [plural], but the story seems to mention one, and I can’t tell if he is anonymous, or this is referring to Lawrence Korb. any info on that?
IMHO, the MoveOn ad was a poor choice. I’d much rather have seen Larry Johnson’s questions printed. Or Juan Cole’s observations. Or Kevin Drum’s. The ad they chose to run did nothing but further the idea that they are too far left. By contrast, they might have been able to reach middle Americans by illustrating why the liberals are so angry. Instead, they caused controversy and their message is not being heard.
Thanks Jane, Glenn and David. This is a great effort, and I appreciate it. Signed and sent.
Ann in AZ @ 41
Loretta Sanchez???
I didn’t hear the end of the hearings but I did like Rep. Ackerman nailing Petraeus. Petraeus said we couldn’t leave until sectarian violence had ended but also said that sectarian violence would return once we left. When confronted by this Petraeus just blathered.
raven,
a two-part bet you can’t lose
if I lose either part, owe you a beer
first, HRC is not elected prez in 2008
second, 4 years from now there are over 100,000 American troops in Iraq
casual observer @ 42
I don’t have any links handy, but I’ve read of troops whose tours have been extended or renewed calling him that for a long time. I think I first saw mention of it late last winter.
bg @ 33
Yeah, but how would you like to be Petraeus? If there was a single shred of decency left in the man, it had to be stretched cat gut tight. The only thing that might have saved his sensibilities might be that not too many questioners (at least of the ones I watched), really held his feet to the fire. All the Republicans were their typical kow towing selves and very few Democrats seemed to ask hard questions (or at least as hard as I would like). There was an air of civility covering a fetid stench of bullshit. It was unpleasant to watch; mostly in that it should have been unpleasanter.
Whoa! Just got an e-mail from Darcy Burner. Her primary opponent, State Senator Rodney Tom, announced last Wednesday that he was dropping
out the race and enthusiastically endorsing Darcy.
The way they have been describing Iraq you would have thought that the Iraqi people were living in caves before the invasion.
Moveon did not do the anti-war cause a service by personalizing their campaign against Gen. Petraeus.
It is George W. Bush who is the perpetrator of the fraud.
Although I feel he has become a very political animal, Gen. Petraeus is doing what the military usually does.
Follow orders.
So instead of putting the focus on The Boy Blunder(Bush) the focus becomes ‘why are the lefties attacking a general’.
I don’t argue with their right to do it I argue with the effectiveness. It ultimately doesn’t serve the cause.
-GSD
No, I don’t think so, but I didn’t catch her name. She had a three fold question and each question had several parts. Part of it had to do with the recent BBC/ABC poll. Crocker said that he hadn’t seen the poll and said something that caused her to defend the poll. To paraphrase: It’s a BBC/ABC poll and I think they can count quite well. In fact, I think they can count better than some generals. Ask General Petraeus, he’ll know what I mean!
OT-Want some good news?
Olberman beat O’Reilly Friday night in the demo. He’s been trending that way for awhile and Friday, he did it.
The tide is turning.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/
solai @ 43
You have a good point
Lindy @ 50
Washington state, right? Good News!!!
solai @ 43
It’s important to remember that if they had not picked up on the MoveOn ad they would just have picked up on something else. MoveOn doing what it did was legitimate. The Republicans will always blame us and the Democrats regardless of what we say or do so I don’t understand why we should self-censor just to make their lives easier. The reason they went ballistic is because the ad hits a little too close to the truth.
There is no concept of progress in this act of agression by the USA.
We have nothing to win.
We can’t passify the sectarian violence which we have no part of.
Our presence is provoking insurgents who want us out.
There is nothing to win… but control and assured access to their oil.
We are in a steady state of continual destruction of a country, it’s infrastructure and it’s dignity.
Let’s pack uo and go and leave them a blank check to fix their country by themselves… when they want it.
GSD @ 52
Couldn’t agree more. A missed opportunity.
GSD @ 52
IMO, the volume of anti-war activity determines its effectiveness.
Move-on may have made a tactical error.
The real question is, how to build a tidal wave.
The message should be loud and clear every day from now on.
A vote for a Republican is a vote for endless war, torture, loss of civil rights, and a police state.
Oh, and have I mentioned:
Pat Tillman - 3 bullets to the forehead
Pat Tillman - 3 bullets to the forehead
Pat Tillman - 3 bullets to the forehead
Hugh @57, I’d say they hit spot on.
The one good thing about Moveon’s ad is that it instantly made “Betrayus” a household name. I swear, I have heard people accidentally or on purpose, slip it in on the teevee.
GSD @ 52
GSD, I agree with you. But I’m guessing moveon and many others who have been strongly critical of Petraeus would say that he invites strong criticism by taking the course he has.
Still, I do not personally like this betray us tack, and fear it may backfire. I’ve no problem with attacking him, but this ‘betray us’ thing is just juvenile.
It’s a fantasy to expect a military commander to report that his military has failed. That’s an oxymoron. He’ll simnply find a way to kabuki and ask for more time… they are too full of themselves.
I think they should be relieved of command for lying and wasting our blood and treasure for nothing. We can’t have a military who don’t have the sense not to fight. But we do. That’s sad.
The Ad was a good idea- but they lost most of the country by attacking the general…Even supposing that he IS an asshole- proving that is a lot to accomplish in a brief spot- and proving that he’s an asshole doesn’t have a damn thing to do with winning the war anyway.
Better to show that we’re moving backwards in Iraq.
I still think it incredibly absurd that Rep. Ros Lehtinen and Senator Lie berman demanded that MOVE On apologize.
Both Ros Lehtinen and Lieberman and others need to start apologizing for supporting the invasion of Iraq based on lies and for the hundreds of thousands of dead, injured and millions displaced. Both Ros-Lehtinen and Lieberman need to apologize for pushing legislation to cut off the Palestinian people of all aid including humanitarian aid. They also need to apologize for supporting Israels illegal invasion of Lebanon, and their continued push to pre-emptively strike Iran.
Get started Lieberman and Ros- Lehtinen you have a great deal of apologizing to do.
GSD @ 52
Petraeus is parroting the Bush line. He should be knocked down. He is not the great soldier. He is the facilitator of a failed and murderous war. Petraeus should not be doing the Republicans’ bidding and then be allowed to hide behind his uniform. I do not understand why we constantly say we need to attack, attack, attack and then when someone does say, but not now, or not that way, or not so much.
When someone lies is that not a form of betrayal?/rhetorical Q.
NBC Nightly News…
Shorter Petraeus: Stay the Course
Pretty much thumbs down ;)
Tweety just asked the ReTHUG retired colonel if Petraues was being used…
Yeah expecting the guy in charge to come in and report that he’s been a total failure is not a likely scenario. That’d be as likely as waking up and finding a million dollars hidin in yer shoe…
You’d expect him to say that he’s managed to improve things at least a little- which is about what he said..
It isn’t up to generals, of course, to decide when to start or stop a war…that’s the part that Clusterfuck’s gotten all screwed up- and most of the country blithely followed him down that rathole.
FDL commenters
Code Pink and Move-on are OK.
Not all anti-war people have the same tactics.
The objective is not internecine warfare but opposition to the enemy.
Franco @ 24
Joe Lieberman: another draft dodger, arm chair warrior (along with Rove, Cheney and others) in good standing. Go away Joe.
How could he have said anything but what he did?
He is a good soldier… like Powell… they do the deed and don’t look at the big picture and things like ethics and morality.
They are criminals when you examine what they do.
Jonathan @ 73
I agree with you.
solai @ 59
I’m in Hugh’s camp, it doesn’t matter whom or what the message is, they’ll seize upon any issue… ! All Moveon did was utilize that very same tactic; ‘…smear the Messenger!!!’ *g*
Well Joe can do as he likes- wish he’d just stay or go and quit flappin his gums about it.
The people of CT have to have buyer’s remorse. The man is repulsive.
Hugh,
Using the attack, attack, attack logic got us into the war. It was the knee-jerk “we gotta blow shit up” response.
Attacking for the sake of attacking is stupid. It was poor strategy to personalize their attack on General Petreaus. Poor strategy.
The knee jerk response is to attack General Petraeus, but in doing so it turns off many potential allies.
The proper person to attack is George W. Bush.
-GSD
solai @ 43
No matter what MoveOn does they will be attacked from the right.
And there is a poll that shows people don’t really trust what Betray Us will say.
53% in poll say Petraus Will Show Pro_bush Tilt
snip/
Asked about Petraeus’ testimony, 53 percent predict the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq will deliver “a biased report that reflects what the Bush administration wants the public to believe.” Four in 10 say it will be independent and objective.
I think he’s fair game and I support MoveOn 100% on this.
Important action item regarding predatory payday lending in Ohio.
Franco @ 71
Petraeus replaced Casey precisely because he was a big promoter of the “surge”. The dissonance comes from the propaganda blitz that has portrayed Petraeus as independent, objective, impartial. He is none of these things. Bush chose him because he is doing exactly what Bush wants, and he is doing exactly what he wants, the way he wants.
The top brass of the military are as guilty as Bush. THEY drew up the war plans. They are complicit. Sure it’s W’s policy… but they are the one’s who enabled it.
Why give the military brass a pass?
The point of spendin money on a teevee ad must be to change some minds- not to deliver a “blow” or to please those who already oppose the war.
I can’t personally see how the ad could have accomplished that.
Betrayus will stick - the RNC machine is extremely vicious. Just remember what the Swiftboaters did to Kerry. I say lob everything at them - no more softball.
There needs to be a “memorable” association for Bush and Cheney too. JMHO. I say sic ‘em bigtime.
So independent Joe would leave the Democratic party because he didn’t like an independent ad???
The surge was always just a shiny object in the first place- now we are adding to the confusion by taking up the musical question “Is the surge makin anything better?”
It’s the wrong fuckin question. Who cares? The point is still- “Is there a chance in hell of Iraq becoming a stable country in our lifetimes and how much are we willing to spend to make it happen?
Yep. The surge was just another effort to do what it did. Buy time. It has been almost a full year since the election, almost a full year.
-GSD
Shortest Petraeus: Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes. And of course the authoritarian loving Repubs can’t handle the truth so they’ll stay in lock step, close their eyes and let others sacrifice their kids. Not unlike the Germans under Hitler who couldn’t see what was under their own nose.
Hugh @ 83
Exactly, Betray-us ain’t the only political tool in the shed… can’t exclude Bergner…!!!
I don’t watch TV.
If you want to sharpen your argument to me, don’t refer to Tweety, or whoever.
Lay it out.
If it works for me, it will work for Americans.
Truth doesn’t care what color your clothes are.
Jonathan @ 15
Yup. And I just signed. :-)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 93
But ridiculous pink outfits tend to damage one’s credibility in the eyes of many in the viewing audience.
Gotta give Clusterfuck credit- the stupid ass surge has bought him at least a year…maybe two- and it was a piece of dumbshit strategy in the first place…
When ya don’t really care about the truth- there’s no limit to what you can accomplish with the American public.
Sestak on Tweety slapping down the Patraeus testimony with comparisons between Vietnam body counts and Iraq “violence” counts
GSD @ 80
70% of the American people oppose this war. An ad by MoveOn is not going to change that. Not attacking goofy policies was what got us into Iraq. It wasn’t being overly aggressive in opposition to Bush.
You say the proper target is Bush. I agree. It is also those who enable and promote his policies. To extend your logic, we should not have been critical of Gonzales and laid the mess at the DOJ where it really belonged with Bush.
If Republicans assume that we will continue to be docile and pull our punches they will continue to roll us. The Democrats should have been pushing back on Petraeus and the “surge” for the last month instead they were silent. MoveOn did something. I don’t see why only the Republicans have a right to free speech.
The word Betrayus is being repeated at a phenomenal rate by the MSM.. It is working, imo.
If it sends Lieberman packing it is a grand slam.
Wouldn’t it be great if HRC and Obama held a presser dressed in pink and started screaming their heads off about the almost 4,000 American kia’s killed in Iraq.
Drive by …
Petraeus = Westmoreland
Must read this to see the path we are approaching if the American public doesn’t wake up:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/.....11928.html
“They Thought They Were Free” re: Germans under Hitler
So will our media go with the republican mantra that we must listen to our generals & ask on all those who totally disagree with Patraeus?
rwcole @ 85
And yet we are talking about it. It gets the message out there that Petraeus is not the Second Coming. People may decry it but they will remember it as the war in Iraq continues to head south.
OT..But trashing Thugs is OK with me.
A former New Orleans prostitute who says she had an affair with Sen. David Vitter has passed a lie-detector test and will provide details of the four-month relationship at a press conference Tuesday, according to Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
TPM
Eureka Springs @ 99
It got traction. Watch how people accidentally say Betrayus instead of Petraeus.
Since MoveOn put out its ad, it is going to be difficult for most people to hear the name Petraeus without thinking “Betrayus”. This is a great accomplishment.
It knocks down the person that Bush was hiding behind.
Eureka Springs @ 99
..seems to be working in the media.. judging from Dems’ outraged responses to the MoveOn ad, it’s NOT working with our elected officials.
*XYZ
Suggest you look at some footage of anti-war protests from the 1960s.
The whole game is to get yourself noticed by TV.