MoveOn Ad

I think the MoveOn ad was a mistake. Well actually I think the final paragraph was a mistake.

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

Up to that point it was pretty accurate.

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.

The problem with the final paragraph is it sounds like the sort of character assassination we have seen from the wingnuts for four years. It's ironic that they are outraged. This headline from Powerline:
MOVEON.ORG HITS BOTTOM
This of course from a site that should know where the bottom is - they found it years ago building a reputation by calling everyone who didn't agree with Der Leeder a traitor.

That said the final paragraph was still a mistake giving the wingnuts all sorts of ammunition for their big guns.

As for the Petraeus presentation - just what we expected - stay the course for another Friedman Unit.

Update
As usual Digby gets in right:

All this hand-wringing sanctimony about Petraeus today as if he's some sort of godlike figure who is beyond criticism is ridiculous. He's selling his war and that's his right. But when he spins and obfuscates and lies like a politician, he should expect to be treated like one.