Follow-Up: David Petraeus Must Be Destroyed

by John Hawkins | September 10, 2007 7:26 am

Back on July 25th, I wrote a post called, “David Petraeus Must Be Destroyed[1].” Here’s the post, almost in its entirety,

“All I can say is that Petraeus better get ready, because the Left is going to do everything in their power to destroy his reputation and his life. They’re going to slander him, they’re going to slime him, and they’re going to demonize him at every opportunity.

Why would they do that to one of our finest generals, a man who literally wrote the book on counter-insurgency warfare, and who has been doing an outstanding job in Iraq leading the surge?

Simple: The Democrats have decided that it’s to their political advantage to see America lose the war in Iraq to Al-Qaeda and Petraeus is making that more difficult.

Moreover, in September, Petraeus is going to go to the Senate and give a very high profile report on what’s happening — and the reality is that our troops are succeeding. They’re systematically tearing Al-Qaeda apart in Iraq, they are securing areas of the country that have long been out of control, and they’re helping the Iraqis stand on their own two feet.

So, Petraeus is expected to say in September that political progress has been so-so, but that we have improved the security situation significantly and that if we give the surge more time, it will work.

If you’re a Democratic senator who desperately wants to see America lose the war in Iraq for political reasons, this puts you in a position of trying to pull American troops out of a war we’re on track to win against the advice of the general on the ground running the war. That will be embarrassing to the Democrats.

How can they deal with it? By using the politics of personal destruction that they perfected during the Clinton administration. They’ll smear and attack Petraeus and they’ll encourage their pals in the MSM to do the same thing. Just wait and see — the Democrats will try to utterly crush Petraeus simply because he’s a competent general, who is getting the job done in Iraq and will be willing to say so on the Senate floor.”

Back then, I predicted that they’re, “going to slander him, they’re going to slime him, and they’re going to demonize him…”

And I was right.

Here’s Harry Reid calling David Petraeus a serial liar[2],

“(David Petraeus) has made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual.”

Via the Weekly Standard[3], here’s how MoveOn is demonizing Petraeus,

Tomorrow–as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress–the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: “General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House.”

Let’s be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has ‘betrayed’ his country. This is disgusting. To attack as a traitor an American general commanding forces in war because his ‘on the ground’ experience does not align with MoveOn.org’s political objectives is utterly shameful. It shows contempt for America’s military leadership, as well as for the troops who have confidence in him, as our fellow soldiers in Iraq certainly do.

…MoveOn.org has been working closely with the Democratic congressional leadership –as an article in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine makes clear. And consider this comment by a Democratic senator from Friday’s Politico: “‘No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,’ noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. ‘The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.’

Here’s lefty blogger Taylor Marsh[4] on Petraeus,

“General Petraeus is on a mission from Mr. Bush. Unfortunately, you cannot simultaneously serve your men and women and a commander in chief who has lost his soul on the way to legacy. Petraeus has made his choice.

…Biden’s good will is also placed wrongly in General Petraeus, which took me a long time to say, believe me, but once the general offered the evidence himself I had the duty to call him out. But it gives me no pleasure or comfort either. The truth in war seldom does, which is why people hide behind formalities instead of leading, especially after making a lethal mistake. But as fine a soldier as Petraeus is, and he is that, the news last week proves that the statistics are cooked and Congress nor the American people will get the truth. Petraeus has crossed a line into political propaganda. I recognize it. I lived through Vietnam. At the very least General Petraeus is playing along, “playing for October or November” just as his boss. As I said before (as did Paul Krugman), it’s Colin Powell all over again only this time with malice of forethought; either that or Petraeus is delusional, which scares me even more; either way this must be stopped.”

You can find these smear jobs all over the place on the left — and they’re more than a little ironic. After all, it was the Democrats in Congress who confirmed Petraeus and demanded that he come before them on 9/11 to testify.

But, they made such a big deal out of the whole thing and we’ve seen so much improvement, that it has backfired on them. We’ve heard the Democrats claim that they “support the troops” over and over and we’ve heard them say that we should listen to the generals. Well, now we’ve got one of the troops, the general who’s leading our effort in Iraq, coming to give a high profile report to Congress that is going to run contrary to the political goals of the Democrats and guess what? Suddenly, the same Democrats who were saying, “Listen to the generals” are calling the general a liar, delusional, and saying that he’s going to “betray us.”

It’s really shameful that the Left is trying to do this to a decent, talented general, whose only crime is winning a war that the Democrats are heavily politically invested in losing.

Endnotes:
  1. David Petraeus Must Be Destroyed: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/mt331/2007/07/david_petraeus_must_be_destroy.php
  2. calling David Petraeus a serial liar: http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=18605
  3. Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/091rhesh.asp
  4. Taylor Marsh: http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=26191

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