And this ad is what the majority of the media, members of the Republican Party, and even Democrats (like those at the Truman Project) are up in arms about? Seriously? The general commanding our forces in Iraq can't tell us if we are safer because of this war (despite being told time and again that we need to fight "them" there so we don't fight "them" here), and this is what people are choosing to focus on--when they choose to focus on anything relating to the war at all.
I could address my remarks at reporters, but I don't think they'll listen, or pay attention.
I could address my remarks at Republicans, but they definitely won't listen, or pay attention. Anyway, they didn't ask for me to remark about the ad.
But Rachel Kleinfeld at the Truman Project did--so I'm addressing this to her.
Rachel:
In your letter to members of the Truman Project, you asked for progressive veterans to respond to MoveOn's ad depicting GEN David Petraeus as a traitor. Since I consider myself to be a progressive veteran, I thought I'd take you up on your kind offer.
While some may consider the letter to be insulting and an outrage, I don't count myself among that number. I don't have an opinion on the General; I don't know him, and I never served in combat with him in Iraq; moreover, my experience in Iraq was utterly different from his, as a front-line soldier in combat.
That being said, here's what I consider an outrage:
--The fact that, as of today, 3,774 women and men have died, and we don't know if America is safer;
--The fact that, as of Aug. 31, 27,767 women and men have been wounded, and we don't know if America is safer;
--The fact that, as of today, we have spent over half a trillion dollars of our national treasure, and we don't know if America is safer;
These are all outrages, but here's what's the crowning outrage: that despite all these trangressions against both the civic and moral good of our nation, that you and your organization choose not to be outraged by those numbers, each reflecting a good life cut down at its prime, and instead choose to exercise your high moral dudgeon at a newspaper ad whose content is incontrovertibly factual.
The General can defend himself, if he so chooses. He doesn't need my help, or yours. I have moral and civic credibility as a progressive veteran, and I'm not going to squander it on fluff like this. If I'm going to use it, I'm going to use it in order to keep more of my brothers and sisters from being flung into the maelstrom of war.
Indeed, it's been your choice to concentrate on piffle like this, rather than the serious questions of war & peace that has caused so many of the best and brightest women and men I served with to be broken in the charnel houses of Iraq. Had you expended one-tenth of the energy and outrage that you've expended on this on advocating against our nation going to war in Iraq, I doubt we would be in the situation we are now.
Your request that I expend any energy on arguing against an organization that, frankly, is composed of Americans sick and tired of the mockery that this Administration has made of this nation and all we stand for is offensive. Please don't waste my time.
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