General Betray Us?

It was a fairly warm Monday and I was outside mowing the front lawn. This isn’t my favorite activity in the best of conditions, and while this wasn’t the worst day to be outside, it felt like it at the time. I was tired, hot, and thirsty. I turned off the mower and stumbled inside, sweat dripping from my body and muscles bulging from my exertion. I grabbed a bottle of water and plopped down on the couch. My shaky hand reached for the remote and turned on the cable box. I then reached for the tv remote and turned on the tv. Then I picked up the remote for the cable box, again, and started flipping through channels. When I have nothing specific to watch, I tend to tune in to the news channels until they repeat themselves. This process usually takes anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes. It makes for a nice break. But this was a day unlike any other. This was the day of the Petraeus Report. I had just found what I was doing for the rest of the day. Which made my girlfriend very, very, very unhappy.

The show started simply enough. The Democrats and the Republicans argue whether or not they think we should be in Iraq. This should have been expected by all, especially considering this is still a new group of Representatives and one of their members is a Republican Presidential candidate. I was truly impressed by General Petraeus during these shenanigans. He patiently waited for the members of the House to say what they thought, even though their opinions had nothing to do with the purpose of the show. Then again, we all know about celebrities and their egos. Duncan Hunter, the afore mentioned Presidential nominee, started his speech with the ad from MoveOn.org which had been printed in the New York Times earlier that day. He was emotional. He was outraged. He was calling for the heads of the heads of the website. He was spitting and screaming and raging and his face was turning red. And every Republican that spoke after him did the same routine. They were very well choreographed. But the Democrats were not to be outdone by the performance of their counterparts. They had their routine down as well. They ignored the ad completely. They had bigger fish to fry.

For those of you that don’t know, the ad posed the question General Petraeus or General Betray Us? Catchy. And shocking. They accomplished their goal. It caught people’s attention. I was curious and wanted desperately to find out what the ad really said. Living in eastern North Carolina, I don’t get to read the New York Times very often because, well, I’m fourteen hours away from New York. But I could look it up online. But I would need a break in the drama happening on television, and unlike sporting events, there are no tv time outs in government (which is odd if you think about. How many of these representatives are sponsored by big corporations. You’d think they would have to pin company logos on their suits or something, causing them to look like Nascar drivers. Go ahead. Picture Hillary Clinton as a Nascar driver. And then add cleavage.). What was I going to do, besides rant in my internal monologue? Luckily, God works in mysterious ways and provided all of us with an opportunity to look up the advertisement which was so important to this report. The mics cut out in the House of Representatives. You had to see that one coming. If they had someone representing Sony, that wouldn’t have happened. But there was apparently no room for them between Big Tobacco and Big Oil. Maybe next year guys.
While they tried to fix the microphones and remove protestors from the room, I ran to my computer and looked up the offensive material in question. I read the whole ad. I even looked up the info they provided via the links on the page. And I was truly appalled. Why would a liberal website provide such easy ammunition as this? Karl Rove couldn’t have invented a better scheme. Even John Kerry couldn’t have screwed up with this one. Why intentionally hurt your own team? I’ll get to that in a second, but first I want to relate to you what was actually said. No, there’s no time. Let me sum up. MoveOn.org was simply asking if the Petraeus Report was actually the Petraeus Report and not the George Bush report. In all fairness, this is a legit question. It is one that the American people should ask themselves and one that Congress should ask itself. This is a serious subject that can not be politicized. Ok, apparently I’m wrong on that one. I say that, because it has been politicized. But more on that in a moment. The problem was that no one asked themselves was the Petraeus Report real. They only focused on the headline. Which was part of what the website wanted. It was an attention grabber. It was that guy that yells in order to make his point. The problem is that nobody listens to that guy. They just want him to shut up. The other problem is that if you simply state what you want to say, no one listens. So MoveOn took the loud approach. And no one listened.

Seriously, I have no problem with the ad. Was it over the top? Yes, but that’s the way it goes with left and right wing political groups. They open their mouths and get their candidates in trouble. Do they have important things to say? Yes, except Ann Coulter. But she does have a nice pair of legs, so that should count for something. All the ad did was take away from the real problem of the Petraeus Report. My father, a Republican, was upset because the Democrats had already come to their conclusion before hearing the report. He failed to notice that the Republicans had done the same thing. Both sides were hearing what they wanted to hear. And then they asked stupid questions. When can we pull our troops out? Should we implement a political surge? How do you feel about the ad? Does my hair look nice? None of these questions were the real questions that needed to be asked. These were questions that should have been asked of each other. They have to make those decisions, not the General. He gave his report, and any question that didn’t have to do with that was pointless. They wanted someone to blame, they wanted someone to be their salvation. He was neither of those things.

And that has been the problem with Iraq all along. Despite promises that it wouldn’t be another Vietnam, it has been a political game all along. For both sides. And here’s the sad truth. Both sides are wrong, and both have their heads so far up their asses that they can’t see the light. The Surge? Is it working? Who knows. It’s been six frickin’ months people. We’re trying to straighten out a country that we invaded, occupied, abandoned (while we were still there. An impressive accomplishment. Kudos!), misunderstood, and are teaching our own people to hate. It ain’t gonna be easy!! And it’s going to take time. They asked, Should we implement a political surge? No shit. What have you been doing these past six months? What was the previous Congress doing before that? Quit asking questions, quit playing politics with lives (both ours and theirs), and do you damn jobs. Otherwise, Bush will be right. Disaster will strike, and this time there will be no doubt that it was our fault because we didn’t do the right thing when we had the chance. But than again, what do I know. These are just the ramblings of one lone madman in a crazy world. And it’s getting crazier all the time.