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Thursday, September 13, 2007
Maggie Gallagher :: Townhall.com Columnist
After Petraeus: Where Have the Grown-Ups Gone?
by Maggie Gallagher
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There was something so PG-13 about MoveOn.org's pre-emptive strike against Gen. David Petraeus on the eve of his Senate testimony. "General Petraeus or General Betray Us? " screamed the full-page New York Times ad. "Cooking the Books for the White House."

Somewhere, some frat boy is howling with glee. Petraeus, Betray Us, get it?

Yeah, we get it. Superbad, guys.

Senate Republicans have responded by demanding the Democratic leaders repudiate their party's baser instincts.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a "sense of the Senate" resolution acknowledging Gen. Petraeus' distinguished record (including two Distinguished Service Medals and a Bronze Star). Gen. Petraeus is not only a combat veteran but a Princeton Ph.D. (one of the few I know of who puts his life on the line for his country) and the author of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps' counterinsurgency manual.

Sen. Cornyn's resolution asks the Senate to "strongly condemn" all efforts to attack the honor and integrity of Gen. Petraeus and to "specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on Gen. Petraeus by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org."

And if there is anything left of the once powerful American tradition that partisan politics stops at our shoreline, Harry Reid and his fellow Senate Democrats would rush to do so.

I'm not holding my breath.

It's too early yet to say exactly how much of an impact Gen. Petraeus' impressive testimony will have on U.S. public opinion. What is disturbing is how much depends on his capacity to persuade Americans that all is not yet lost in Iraq.

A Sept. 6-9 Associated Press poll underscored how pessimistic Americans remain that anything good can come out of Iraq. By 59 percent to 34 percent, Americans said they believe that history will judge the Iraq war a complete or partial failure rather than a success. A New York Times poll this week showed almost two-thirds of Americans favor either an immediate reduction in troops or a complete withdrawal. Continued...
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About The Author

Maggie Gallagher is a nationally syndicated columnist, a leading voice in the new marriage movement and co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.

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(38 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Sep 14, 2007 - 10:35 PM EST
Give General Patraeus a Chance
..The troops will come home, but instead of coming home with their tails between their legs unable to look at people in their eyes, like those of us of the Viet Nam generation, I hope they will be met by a grateful and respectful nation and not be ashamed of their service but be proud of it.
..The troops believe in what they are doing. General Patraeus and his staff believe in what they are doing. The President believes that what he is doing is the right thing to do.
..This is not a conventional war. General Patraeus has developed a plan of action which by most accounts is succeeding. Give the General a
chance to futher refine and perfect his operations. We can all be proud of our nation and those who serve it.
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Reply # 2
Date: Sep 14, 2007 - 8:27 PM EST
The left needs to shut up
It didn't win any war the US was ever involved in.

The left brought some of the worst horror of the 20th C. To claim to pacifism is a joke.

Lenin brought the Russian Rev., the death of the Russian Romanovs, its ruling family; humiliating withdrawal from WW I, institution of mod. state terror, and 10 years of civil war that depleted Russia by 10s of millions.

Then Lenin's successor Stalin starved the Ukraine in the 30s to force farm collectivization. Maybe 10-30-40 million died. No one knows. The NYTimes covered this miracle and called communist USSR the utopia of the future. It won a Pulitzer Prize for that lie and has never had the decency to return the award.

The left in N. Korea is starving its populace while terrorizing the world with a nuclear program.

China under commnist Mao killed so many millions they've never been counted or estimated. In the mid-60s, Mao unleashed a "culural revolution" to eliminate what was left of the middle class. His idiot farm plans also produced mass famine and starvation.

We know after S. Vietnam fell 2 1/2 million went to re-education camps. Pot Pol killed 2 million in Cambodia. They were the killing fields.

The left in Cuba under Castro has jailed 10's of thousands for wanting freedom of the press and free of speech. Cuba is also starving its population. The weak and starving are less likely to have any fight in them.

Don't tell me how peace-loving the left is. It is merely a life-sucking vampire on the body politic.
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