Attacking ‘The Establishment’ — And Petraeus
September 11, 2007, 9:11am
Yesterday’s congressional testimony about the Iraq war by Army Gen. David Petraeus was not well-received in some quarters even before it was given, and online activists are urging the “D.C. establishment” to think twice before listening to Petraeus.
Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald introduced a Web site and online petition drive aimed at lawmakers. He called it “a first step to begin pressuring the D.C. establishment to heed the will of the American people with regard to this war.”
Greenwald warned that anything Petraeus says should “be viewed with extreme skepticism” because of his past statements about the war.
“It is indisputably true that claims of great progress from General Petraeus are anything but new,” Greenwald said in a video introducing the Stop the D.C. Establishment campaign. “Quite the contrary, General Petraeus has spent virtually the entire Iraq year, almost four years now, repeatedly assuring Americans that things are going well there and that substantial progress is being made.”
Another online activist group, meanwhile, found itself the target of criticism yesterday over its attack against Petraeus. MoveOn.org ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times under a headline that suggested Petraeus has betrayed his country by “cooking the books [about the war] for the White House.”
The ad prompted an outcry from Republicans and an editorial of condemnation in The Wall Street Journal this morning.
Categories: Military, Producer's Picks, Iraq, Lobbying
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