Bringing Die-hard War Supporters and Feckless War Opponents to Their Knees

Bringing Die-hard War Supporters and Feckless War Opponents to Their Knees
by Walter C. Uhler | Sep 19 2007


I was reminded of my mid-1960s high school days in conservative Lebanon, Pennsylvania, when I read that Senator John McCain recommended that MoveOn.org, "ought to be thrown out of this country," because it paid for a full-page ad in the New York Times, which carried the headline, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" McCain's outburst reminded me of the narrow-mind patriots in Lebanon, who used the illiberal cliché, "America, Love it or Leave it" to deny the patriotism of America's Vietnam War protesters.

Yet, there are at least two reasons to suspect that MoveOn's ad had merit and critics, like McCain, were wrong. First, we have Gareth Porter's exceptional reporting that General Petraeus' superior, Admiral Fallon, accused Petraeus of being "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" for serving as a "front man" for Bush's surge. Second, we have Alexander Cockburn's CounterPunch Diary report of September 15-16, 2007, in which he claims that Petraeus' testimony had been "freshly vetted and re-written by Vice President Cheney."

If Cockburn's report is accurate, then Petraeus not only lied when he asserted, "I wrote this testimony myself," he also failed to present the independent report he promised. And THAT failure should be considered a betrayal.

McCain's outburst also brings to mind the words uttered by counterterrorism expert, Michael Scheuer, during testimony to the House of Representatives on April 17, 2007. When Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt told Scheuer, "You know, you are really tough on Senator McCain. You said he is 'a little man with mediocre intelligence, a taste for bullying, and an appalling temper who thinks the presidency is his birthright,'" Scheuer responded by asserting, "Sir, he is a perfect example of a man who is tremendously courageous and patriotic, but that does not necessarily correlate with brain power."

Moreover, now that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe this deadly and horrible war is lost and should never have been undertaken, were the hypothetical and illiberal question of who "ought to be thrown out of this country" ever seriously entertained (which I don't recommend), shouldn't we recommend deporting a handful of our warmongering neoconservatives to Israel, but only after shipping members of our executive branch, such as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, to a current-day equivalent of Elba?

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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10010

"an ass-kissing little chickenshit"

Admiral Fallon is my second cousin. You can't beat an Irishman when it comes to spitting in someone's eye.

Admiral Fallon is also known for being one of our nation's most effective commanders who can boast the lowest rate of casualties among those he commands.