Earlier today, I posted something on a pair of editorials attempting to discredit Gen. David Petraeus. I said then that I didn’t think it was coincidental. I asked if it was the New Liberal Smear Campaign Against Gen. Petraeus. I googled Gen. Petraeus’ name again this evening. Here’s another editorial spewing the same vitriolic garbage. Here’s the key section of the editorial:

The war rages on but the only plan the minority party can come up with is one of misdirecting the public away from its inability to deal with ending it.

The MoveOn.org ad ["MoveOn.org's demeaning attack," Times, Editorial, Sept. 23] asks if Gen. David Petraeus will tell the truth based on his history of following the Bush administration’s practice of manipulating the facts, and concludes, correctly, that he most likely would not. Woe be to those who thought their speech was protected by the First Amendment when they actually do speak out.

What The Times and those distraction-seeking Republicans in Congress failed to report is that MoveOn’s biggest sin was not questioning Gen. Petraeus’s veracity, but its plagiarism of the exact word used to describe Petraeus by officers on the ground long before the ad was published.

This still isn’t conclusive proof that MoveOn.org is behind this batch of editorials but I’d bet that it isn’t a coincidence either. Let’s examine this editorial in teh Seattle Times with David Mendenhall’s editorial in the Arizona Republic:

Gen. David Petraeus has been so politicized in the past several months that he has become identified with the executive branch of government. As such, he is subject to the same scrutiny as any other political figure, and pejorative comments are to be expected from opposing factions.

The message that Patrick Stults tried conveying in his Seattle Times editorial isn’t substantially different than the message David Mendenhall tried conveying. Mendenhall said that military figures are fair game if the Left chooses to politicize them whereas Patrick Stults cuts to the chase by saying that Gen. Petraeus is a liar and that MoveOn.org’s ad wasn’t bold enough for him.

Mr. Stults’s comment that “Gen. David Petraeus…has become identified with the executive branch of government” is laughable for its stupidity. In case Mr. Stults hasn’t noticed, the military has always been part of the executive branch of government. Therefore, it should be “identified with the executive branch of government.”

These editorials aren’t all that’s being done to discredit Gen. Petraeus. Here’s Jerry Ferrier’s comment left in response to Patrick Stults’s editorial:

Gen. David Petraeus demeaned himself long before MoveOn.org and its ad. This is the same general, who as commander of the 101st Airborne, made no attempt to protect the munitions in three ammunition dumps of which the contents have been used in the killing of hundreds of our servicemen and women.

He has allowed himself to be used by the White House spin machine just as Gen. Colin Powell was used in the run-up to the war. I suspect that some day he will look back on his testimony with great regret, just as Powell now does about his U.N. testimony. No one who has read the independent assessments coming from other sources such as the Government Accountability Office or any of the media stationed in Baghdad and such places as the much touted Anbar province can have any real confidence in the statements by this general.

Then there’s this comment by David Barash:

As with his infamous op-ed piece in The Washington Post, just six weeks before the 2004 election, Petraeus continued to place his own career advancement over care for his troops, telling his civilian bosses what they want to hear rather than what is true. It’s not treason, but it certainly is a betrayal, and during a time when truth-telling about Iraq, even if it hurts, has been unforgivably rare, MoveOn.org was right on.

Mr. Barash’s statements aren’t based on objective facts but on subjective criteria. As such, they should be ignored.

What ties this all together is this little bit of information:

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a national campaign comprised of a variety of groups from across the political spectrum that are committed to opposing the Bush plan to escalate the war in Iraq and to work for the responsible redeployment of American forces. Americans Against Escalation in Iraq includes Veterans, students, some of the nation’s leading anti-war voices, and progressive organizations which traditionally confine their activity to domestic issues.

In other words, AAEI is committed to doing whatever it takes to stop the war in Iraq. Considering the fact that their stated goal is to stop the war, it isn’t a stretch to think that they’re having their members write editorials discrediting Gen. Petraeus.

AAEI is a coalition made up of these organizations:

Service Employees International Union, MoveOn.org Political Action, VoteVets.org, Center for American Progress Action Fund, USAction, Win Without War, Campaign for America’s Future, the United States Student Association, Working Assets, Americans United for Change, Campus Progress Action and Nation Security Network

Though I haven’t found proof of MoveOn.org’s orchestrating these efforts, this information tells me that these editorials aren’t coincidental:

The coalition consists of tax-exempt educational and advocacy organizations, as well as political action committees and “527″ organizations. Each entity, working on its own or with other legally permissible coalition members, will conduct activities appropriate to its tax and election law status, all under the umbrella of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a coalition of organizations including a wide range of political and nonprofit organizations that are working to change our current policy in Iraq.

In other words, various organizations are limited as to what they can do because of IRS regulations while others have more ‘flexibility’, allowing them to do more things. All, though, are capable of telling their members to write editorials in an attempt to discredit Gen. Petraeus. In their minds, their battle isn’t on the battlefields of Afghanistan or Iraq; it’s inside the Beltway.

It hasn’t been a secret that MoveOn.org’s goal is to persuade senators and/or representatives to abandon the troops. One way to do that is to discredit Gen. Petraeus.

The question that every decent, ethical person should ask themselves is this: Shouldn’t we demand that these hate groups stop with their character assassinations, especially on those who aren’t politicians?

After all, what kind of nation do we want to live in?

Technorati Tags: David Petraeus, President Bush, Americans Against Escalation In Iraq, MoveOn.org, Smear Campaign

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog