http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2010/06/more-on-lefty-silence-on-afghanistan.html
June 25, 2010
More on Lefty Silence on Afghanistan Posted by Michael Cohen
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I'm not always in agreement with MoveOn, but in general I think they
do important work on behalf of progressive goals. One notable
exception was this ad that referred to General David Petraeus as
General Betray Us. While I was sympathetic to the notion that
General Petraeus was presenting Congress and the American people wit
an overly rosy view of the war in Iraq (and said so at the time)
this ad was in incredibly poor taste and actually undercut the
progressive argument against the surge.
Yet, MoveOn kept that ad up on its website for three years . . .
until a few days ago when it decided to remove it. One can draw
their own conclusions as to the reasons for its sudden removal, but
clearly it's not too hard to figure out why: Petraeus is on our team
now!
Surely if MoveOn believed its "Betray Us" ad was correct then (and
has been correct for the past three years) I can't see how President
Obama appointing Petraeus to be the US commander in Afghanistan
changes anything.
What's even more surprising is that MoveOn has been critical of the
war in Afghanistan and of escalation (although there is no mention
of the war on its homepage today). The fact is, a change in command
doesn't change the fundamental incoherence of our current strategy,
which President Obama made clear on Wednesday will remain the same.
If MoveOn thinks the war is a mistake it should say so - but then
again so should a lot of people.
June 25, 2010 at 12:49 PM