MoveOn.org, "Owner" of Democratic Party, Brays "Betray" at Petraeus

MoveOn.org, the organization that has boasted that it owns the Democratic Party,

We bought it, we own it, and we're taking it back,

has now bought a page from The New York Times to trumpet its message of distrust of General David Petraeus, our military leader in Iraq.

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.

Unfortunately, MoveOn.org is not unusual, at least when compared against elected Democratic leaders.

Less than four months after voting to confirm Gen. Petraeus, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Ritz Carlton), called Petraeus a liar, and has since described him as an incompetent who isn't in touch with events in Iraq, which Reid visited once several years ago for two days.

During Gen. Petraeus' most recent visit to Washington, DC, to brief the nation's political leadership, Speaker Pelosi was too busy to meet with the General for a briefing.

No question of ownership, the Democratic Party went pretty cheap.