The Backlash Continues, Smith calls MoveOn "stupid and disgraceful"

The backlash against liberal group MoveOn.org continues as the US Senate pushed through a non-binding resolution condemning Moveon's ad slamming General David Petraeus.

While I personally agree the ad was not in very good taste, I believe the US Senate has better things to do then go after political groups. If they had the balls why didn't they go after the Swift boat group that attacked Senator Kerry?

The story from Yahoo News:

Democrats proceed with Iraq legislation
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats defiantly charged ahead Thursday with legislation ordering troops home from Iraq, still lacking the votes to win but armed with the mantra that Republicans, along with President Bush, now own the war.

"They want this war more than they want to protect our soldiers," Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters. "When I say they want the war, they want to protect their president more than they want to protect our troops."

Reid spoke minutes after Republicans successfully pushed through, by a 72-25 vote, a resolution condemning an advertisement by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org. Displayed in The New York Times, the ad taunted Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, as "General Betray Us."

Reid's tough rhetoric reflected frustration by Democrats that more Republicans haven't broken with Bush on the war. Several Republican senators had grown increasingly anxious throughout the summer about the violence in Iraq and lack of political progress in Baghdad.

But despite a small group of challengers to the war, the GOP largely has stood behind Bush. On Wednesday, Republicans blocked legislation by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would have guaranteed troops more time at home. On Thursday, the Senate voted 28-70 to block legislation sponsored by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., that would have cut off funding for combat in June 2008.

"No matter where my colleagues came down in 2003 about the centrality of Iraq to the war on terror, there can simply be no debate that our efforts in Iraq today are critical to the wider struggle against violent Islamic extremism," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Gordon Smith, one of the few Republican senators who supports legislation ordering troop withdrawals, said he thought Petraeus' testimony last week and the MoveOn.org ad were the two biggest factors in keeping Republicans from breaking ranks with the president: Petraeus' testimony because it was persuasive and the ad because it attacked a popular uniformed officer.

"It was stupid on their part and disgraceful," said Smith, R-Ore.

The article went on to say:

In a White House news conference Thursday, Bush said the MoveOn.org ad was "disgusting" and he criticized Democrats for not immediately condemning it.

"And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org, or more afraid of irritating them, then they are of irritating the United States military," Bush said.

Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal group, responded: "What's disgusting is that the president has more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war."

The resolution sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas condemning the ad drew opposition from Clinton and Dodd.

Obama did not vote on that measure. But minutes earlier, he did support an alternative by Sen. Barbara Boxer that condemned the ad as well as previous attack ads that questioned the patriotism of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., both Vietnam veterans.

"We're going to be pretty busy if we turn into the ad police," said Boxer, D-Calif.

Why the situation in Iraq is not the same as Korea

Gates and Bush fail to see the difference between Iraq and Korea. As someone who lived in Korea for over three and a half years and has become interested in understanding Korean history, I am shocked at the comparisons drawn between the two countries by the Bush Administration.

First of all, the situation prior to our involvement with the two countries were a totally different set of circumstances. The reason we are in Iraq is oil. Even former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan acknowledges that fact in a Washington Post interview about his new book. The difference is that the two Koreas were divided after the end of WWII by the US and Russia to administer (or run) the countries. That became permanent when the type of elections and government could not be agreed upon. The reason we were there (and still are there), had to do with a threat from the Communist North which invaded South Korea in June of 1951.

Second, while there were a small number of "left wing insurgents" in Korea between 1945-1948, they were few in number compared to the large scale insurgency which is causing the sectarian violence in Iraq. The best estimates of violence in Korea is 30,000-100,000 people killed in Korea in the three years before the Korean Government was formed in 1948, compared to around 655,000 based on the Lancet Surveys of Mortality in Iraq.

Third, the administration fails to acknowledge to this day, there is a great amount of animosity toward the US from Koreans in terms of our continued presence there. This is the one area we can draw a comparison. Depending on who you talk to of course, the older generations (for the most part) realize that the US made sacrifices to keep the South free, whereas the younger generation tend to question why we still have troops in their country.

Some of the animosity I referenced above has to do with different incidents occurring US Military personal in Korea. The most famous incident happened in 2003 (prior to my arrival in Korea), when US soldiers stationed at the Youngsan Garrison Base were driving an armored vehicle which ran over two Korean girls. The US Military refused to turn the soldiers over the the Korean authorities, instead opting to put them on trial in military court. Both of the two soldiers were acquitted of manslaughter, the outcome of which caused a huge outrage toward all Americans (military or civilian) by Koreans.

I have to honestly wonder what Gates and Bush are thinking when they make such crude comparisons between Iraq and Korea. The only thing we are done is causing animosity toward the US, instead of helping the Iraq people.

MoveOn's New Anti-War Ad Uninspiring

I just received an email from MoveOn, which I am a member of, with news of a new anti-war ad. After watching it, I nearly fell asleep. Take a look for yourself:



I was also disheartened by the print ad attacking General David Petraeus with the tagline, "Will General Petraeus, be General Betray Us?"


Petraeus Ad 9/2007 (Note: This is a Pdf file and requires Adobe Acrobat)

Are MoveOn's ads effective? Discuss...

McCain: The Republican's Butt Boy

Over the few days or so, John McCain has said some pretty nasty things about both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

McCain blamed Cheney and Rumsfeld for what he said was, "a terribly mishandled" war.

A few days later, McCain apologized to Cheney claiming he was misquoted (yeah right).

In addition, McCain has called Rumsfeld one of the worst Secretary of Defence in the countries history. We shall wait and see if he apologizes to Rumsfeld as well.

So this begs the question: Is McCain Cheney and Rumsfeld's butt boy or is he his own candidate?