President Obama and General Petraeus. Source: www.tolerance.ca/image/photo
Mr. President, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have General Petraeus come in and save your Afghan policy at the same time as you have been associated with MoveOn.org, which called him “General Betray Us” on the pages of the New York Times in 2007.
I don’t want to be the guy always criticizing President Obama – I think in many ways he is doing a good job. But I cannot help but shine light on hypocrisy in politics, on whichever side of the aisle it occurs. With Obama, who cultivates an image of new politics and bipartisanship, I feel compelled to draw readers’ attention to misperceptions of the man.
The facts:
– In 2003 MoveOn.org, funded in part by anti-Bush billionaire George Soros, allowed an ad on its website that compared Bush to Hitler, later claiming they had nothing to do with it.
– In 2007, MoveOn.org posted an ad in the New York Times, calling General Petraeus “General Betray Us,” and accusing him of cooking the numbers in order to make President Bush’s surge in Iraq look effective. Senator (and Candidate) Obama relentlessly criticized the surge in Iraq and its architect, General Petraeus, only later admitting it might have worked and employing a similar strategy as president in Afghanistan. Candidate Obama in 2007 failed to heed calls to criticize the “General Betray Us” ad.
– On February 1, 2008, MoveOn.org endorses Barack Obama for President of the United States, and Obama accepts.
– On June 23, 2010, President Obama calls in General Petraeus to head up the NATO mission in Afghanistan, which involves a surge of troops and counterinsurgency operations, much like what successfully ended the Iraq civil war under Obama’s predecessor.
Can Obama supporters at least admit the hypocrisy please, even if it is true that most politicians do the same? I know many say, the election is over, forget about what happened in the heat of the campaign. I say, let’s be fair and hold all politicians accountable for what they do and say on the campaign trail, especially when it affects policy.
Will General Petraeus run for high office one day? Interesting question…
