The Ad – The Trap
10 September 2007 11:11 am by Taylor Marsh
 |
| Soldiers said it first. |
Taylor Marsh LIVE!
3:00 p.m. eastern – 12:00 pacific
Missed the show? Podcast is up.
It’s being called by some as MoveOn.org’s “shock and awe”. Here’s the text of the ad:
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.
Mr. Bush is continuing the Rumsfeld policy of dismantling Goldwater-Nichols, which is putting General Petraeus in front of the president in order to take the incoming that Bush could never deflect. The president is hiding behind General Petraeus, which is something Wes Clark has been saying for weeks. The general is choosing to stand in front of his commander in chief, rallying the nation to their cause, which long ago went astray from United States vital interests in the region and the world.
I was part of a media conference call this morning with John Edwards foreign policy team. The question was asked before I got a chance to ask it myself. Paraphrasing, What does the Edwards team think about the MoveOn.org ad? They hadn’t seen the ad, which Chris Kofinis, the communications director for Edwards, made clear multiple times, interrupting anyone responding to the question. I’ll be talking about the Edwards media call on the show today. The conversation started on Edwards’ counterterrorism speech last week, then turned to Iraq.
“Time to be patriotic about something besides war.” – Edwards campaign
The MoveOn.org ad is up front and center everywhere. Rush went ballistic today. It’s been all over the media. The swiftboaters have weighed in, which is rich considering they attack any veteran or soldier not a Republican loyalist. A blog post at NRO calls the ad “disgusting”. Another blog has a soldier weighing in.
What do you think? I’ll let you know how I feel on the show. Keep in mind one thing. Any messaging must be powerful, but stop before the edge has been reached and the cause for which you’re righteously fighting careens over the cliff. Does the ad work? Does it help the Democratic cuase? There’s another point on which to reflect as well. Does the ad do what Democrats in Congress cannot? The last is not a minor point.
Republicans are falling into a trap.
Lots to talk about is an understatement. Here’s Obama’s statement on Iraq (emphasis original), which I just received.
“Changing the definition of success to stay the course with the wrong policy is the wrong course for our troops and our national security. The time to end the surge and to start bringing our troops home is now – not six months from now. The Iraqi government is not achieving the political progress that was the stated purpose of the surge, and in key areas has gone backwards. Our military cannot sustain its current deployments without crippling our ability to respond to contingencies around the world. It’s time for a change of direction that brings our troops home, applies real pressure on the Iraqis to act, surges our diplomacy, and addresses Iraq’s urgent humanitarian crisis. I can only support a policy that begins an immediate removal of our troops from Iraq’s civil war, and initiates a sustained drawdown of our military presence.”
Hope you can join me today.
