Whose Honor?

Preparatory to General Petraeus' testimony today, some Congress members, incensed by a Move-On.org full page ad in the NY Times referring to him as General Betray Us, lashed out at that organization and the "Left" in general for daring to utter a doubting word about the General. Then they extolled grandiloquently about his virtue, honor, patriotism, truthfulness, and their utter faith in his every word. The military code of honor would forever hold its finest.

There was a time not long ago when these overwrought protestations would have at least been grounded in truth. There was a recent time when our nation looked to such a General, a man whom we could trust without reservation. In fact, without this fine General, the very embodiment of military honor, George W. Bush would not have been able to convince the Congress and the public to let him start his criminal and murderous war.

But General Colin Powell let us down. He stood before the United Nations and the world, and when he pointed at the little maps and smudgy photos, he presented "facts" that were no such thing, made sweeping conclusions that were dead wrong, and when he was finished, America lined up behind the administration and smartly saluted.

Years later, when it was too late to do any good, Powell owned up somewhat to his failure. But in the meantime a country has been turned into a nightmare, millions of people have had to flee their homeland, and upwards of a million have been killed outright as a result of the policies which he helped scam into place.

When Colin Powell enabled Bush/Cheney to launch their crooked war, he had the same credibility and was accorded the same honor as General Petraeus today. It is not any slur against Petraeus if people are skeptical about his testimony. This administration has politicized the military to an alarming degree. They have plowed through Generals at a steady pace during this war and hope that finally Petraeus will be the one to achieve their impossible dreams.

General Petraeus assures us that he wrote his own speech, and he probably penned the words. But what exactly was the purpose of all of the work being done at the White House to help prepare the report? This General's job is to do the bidding of the Commander in Chief. This report was about justification and cheer leading and there is no way that it can be seen as anything other than the military leadership's attempt to spin the war on the administration's behalf.

Whatever you think of Move-On.org, they have every right to question this General's testimony. The Bush/Cheney administration has shown us that they will lie and lie and lie again. The fact that anyone is willing to give them any credibility at all is astounding, let alone to presume that we should automatically trust anyone who is associated with them not to misrepresent reality when convenient.

Increasingly lost in this swirl of debate over the quality of the surge's "successes" is the fact that the surge was not to prove that thousands of American troops could control isolated areas of a small nation that has been crippled by years of war. No, it was to create breathing room for the politicians to organize their democracy. But since that hasn't even begun to happen, they've just changed the debate, as they always do, and now they're all talking tactics and strategies and we'll soon see if the politicians are all corrupted enough, and we're all numb enough to follow them once again down the yellow brick road.

Peace is War. Lies are Truth. Go Shopping.

Comments

[CarmanK]

"Trust but verify" I think Ronald Reagan said it. Bush/Cheney lied to the nation, we believed them and did not exercise healthy skepticism. Bush/Cheney lied and said they would let the military fight the war. They did not. The newly constituted Bush/Chene­y-Lean/eff­icient military, was exposed as ill-equipped, under manned and unable to "police" Iraq effectively. The duo used the US Army,with callous disregard,to test CHENEY/Rumsfeld's theory of warfare and no one objected. Where were the Armed Services Committees in Congress?
How come the country did not know the status of military preparedness?
MoveOn.Org crossed the line with Patreus.
The man is a soldier, doing the job this president assigned him and he is protecting the men and women under his command. It is against every bone in his body to reveal weakness to the enemy. Speaking truth to power in Wash is a command death knell and Patreus is no deserter. The public show is done, Patreus needs a private meeting with members of Congress.

[Republicnotademocracy]

Face it: The left and its parent organization MoveOn.Org have made a serious gaffe in attacking the patriotism of General Patraeus.

Whomever dreamed up that ad was a major league asshole.

Big time.

[Boyaca]

The American Military has never hidden the fact that it plants lies for strategic advantage. In this case it is just a strategic advantage over the American Public that is being sought.Why is anyone surprised?