I do not believe General Petraeus or any senior military officer "that desires their retirement" wants to willingly betray the American people, their Commander-In-Chief (their Boss) or their troops, so in that respect I personally believe that Moveon or anyone else is pushing it a bit with the ad, HOWEVER that said, WHO CARES ABOUT THE HONOR OF 'ONE GENERAL' AFTER THOUSANDS OF YOUNG AMERICANS HAVE DIED, CONGRESS, THE PENTAGON, and yes, THIS PRESIDENT (AND UNFIT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF) CONTINUES EXPLOITING, USING, AND ABUSING THE SAME TROOPS OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN, PLUS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONGRESS, AND OUR TROOPS LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!

Petraeus is a General, and all Senior Military Officers in Iraqinam should be able to take the public heat, Congressional heat, AND heat from President Bush, for failure to achieve some kind of "defined" or "undefined" victory in Iraq or get out of the Sandbox. Put quite simply, as a Retired Military Officer, and a Field Grade Officer at that, I sure a hell would not want to be General Petraeus, I don't envy Petraeus, not will I go out of my way to DEFEND his or anyother Senior Officer's honor while "my child" and other children seriously IN HARMS WAY, 21st Century Generals by definition (even during Vietnam) ARE NOT IN HARMS WAY. Don't anyone buy that bullshit for one minute. Petraeus' honor needs about as much DEFENDING from the IGNORANT members of Congress who know as much and care as much about who is really in harms way in Iraq as those on both sides of the isle and the American people who let them GET AWAY WITH IT and REJECT THE DRAFT.

As long as there is NO DRAFT, as long as it is someone else's kid, and it rarely will be a General coming home in a flag drapped coffin, why worry, be happy. It is some other fool's problem for joinin the Army or Marine Corps in the first place. You seriously believe this sentiment is not TRUE, then you need to dust off the Book (not the movie) Born on the Fourth of July and read it again and again, especially the part where the wannabe NEOCON wants to give the Disabled Combat Vet a job flippin burgers and whispers in his ear that the Vet was dumb enough to buy that "patriotic" bullshit he the (Young Republican) was spewing as the young NEOCON has better things to do ala Dick Cheney, that is Avoid the Draft. It is one thing the avoid any war those dumb enough to be stuck in it endure, but watch and wait when our troops come home, and the Young Republicans boast about how they managed to "AVOID IRAQINAM," but will hire Disabled Iraq Vets to flip burgers in thier up and coming businesses ala Cheney. MARK MY WORDS, avoiding war is a vicious cycle and LIBERALS do not have a monopoly on Draft dodging or avoiding combat - HOW SHORT MINDED THE AMERICAN SHEEPLE ARE WHEN THEY MANAGE TO CON ONE PERCENT OF THE POPULATON INTO DEFENDING THE REST OF US.

Point: The Bush Administraton and Congress, especially THIS CONGRESS is crawling with notibles who both avoided  combat and THE DRAFT during Vietnam then bragged about it later. Then, when it fit their deceitful means of getting out of that war, they USED fools that served in that one to rally support for THEIR MISTAKE in this one, while again not playing themselves nor intending to send their own children in harms way except for an unfortunate few sacrificed on the NEOCON ulter - a precious few TOO FEW WORTH MENTIONING.

What really should concern the American people, and it does if the reaction of the masses is any indication (THE AMERICAN MAJORITY REALLY DON'T CARE ABOUT GENERALS WHO DESIRE TO STAY THE COURSE IN IRAQINAM - DAH - NO MORE THAN THEY CARE ABOUT STAYING IN IRAQINAM DESPITE SLOGANS AND RHETORIC SUPPORTIVE OF "OUR TROOPS" TO THE CONTRARY. BOTH CONGRESS AND THE ADMINISTRATION STILL DO NOT GET IT - PUBLIC SUPPORT TO OUR TROOPS DOES NOT EQUAL SUPPORT TO THE IRAQ WAR NOR ANY TROOPS, ESPECIALLY GENERALS THAT SUPPORT THAT WAR - DOES A BRICK NEED TO FALL ON EACH MEMBER OF CONGRESS FOR THIS TO SINK IN? )

Why is CONGRESS wasting so much time DEFENDING the HONOR of ONE FRIGGING GENERAL while thousands of young American's have died and members of Congress (in each party who voted for the Iraq War) are morally obligated to accept responsiblity along with President Bush for the mistakes made when they voted to send our troops to Iraq LET US HEAR A THOUSAND AMENS TO THAT. Where the hell are the priorities of our members of Congress. They are about as ELITISTS as George W. Bush's supporters and just as arrogant. That is why.

THIS WAS MY RESPONSE POSTED IN THE WASHINGTON POST:

ARMYDAD3ID wrote: Frankly the Democratic Party needs MOVEON and related POPULISTS MOVEMENTS more than MOVEON.org needs the Democratic Party, and that is what has the War Monger Wing of both parties up in arms (no pun intended) about this ad highlighting where Bush's General really has no choice but to stand - loyal to his BOSS. This is worthy of putting on my MilBlog at Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and Veterans for America (VFA) the forward thinking Veterans of America.

Outstanding analysis here (in this Washington Post article) of WHY both parties, but especially the Dems BETTER take Moveon serious about ENDING IRAQINAM, because MOVEON is into large scale, nation-wide, grassroots Coalition building that could be the key to a Third Party movement anchored on the concept of ending U.S. occupaton of foreign nations. HOWEVER, what members of Congress whining about "the Honor of one of Bush's Political Generals" don't seen to understand is that MOVEON is only one of many populists players among the masses of AMERICAN VOTERS that gave DEMS the Congress in 2006, and have THE POWER to purge even more FASCISTS out of Congress in 2008 regardless of party. One only needs google who Moveon is allied with, including True Majority and so on to see that dollars that could be going to politcal campaigns are INSTEAD going to END IRAQINAM. The sooner both Democrats and Republicans realize that the better off they and OUR TROOPS will be. JUST A THOUGHT. It is no longer about VICTORY or GLORY in Iraq, it IS about saving lives and MONEY. (WINK)A few weeks before Army Gen. David H. Petraeus's much-anticipated testimony on Iraq, the leadership of the internet-based grassroots PA group MoveOn.org, that rallied its 3 million national members to oppose the Iraq war, decided on a change in strategy. Rather than making another (DEAD END) appeal to moderate Republicans to join Senate Democrats in passing an antiwar resolution, they would take on the credibility of (the General responsible for leading President Bush's SURGE) Petraeus himself. Their weapon, they decided in conjunction with their Washington-based public relations firm, would be an ad in the New York Times that provocatively played off his name with this question in large letters: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" Last thursday, that PR firm in DC, so small its 17 employees don't even have a central office, found itself a flea under attack with a sledge hammer by not only President Bush, who said the ad was "disgusting," but also by the Democratic-controlled Senate, which passed a resolution 72 to 25 expressing its own outrage. Many Democrats blamed the group for giving moderate Republicans a ready excuse for staying with Bush and for giving Bush and his supporters a way to divert attention away from the war. In an e-mail to its members last Thursday evening, MOVEON acknowledged that the content of the ad might have angered its allies but argued that a larger issue is at stake.

As the members of Congress of both parties rally around President Bush and "his" General responsible for "his" SURGE, they just don't get it, the vast MAJORITY of American people DID NOT give Democrats meaningful control of THE HOUSE, and slight control of THE SENATE in order to support the President's MISTAKE in the Middle East nor defend the honor of any of Bush's YES MEN General's responsible for salvaging some kind of legacy out of a FAILED PRESIDENCY vis-a-vis IRAQINAM. Evidently, the only way CONGRESS is going to seriously understand this is in November 2008 when no one that the mainstream media is HYPING to be President of the United States from either party makes it through the primaries. LET US HAVE A MILLION AMENS TO THAT.

"Maybe you liked our General Petraeus ad. (I frankly wasn't that crazy about it, BUT) Maybe you thought the language went too far, (I frankly wasn't too crazy about it,) But make no mistake: this is much bigger than one ad."

KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS to the brilliant leadership of MOVEON for having the intellect to turn criticism squarely back on the Senate WHERE IT HAS BELONGED SINCE THE INVASION, ESPECIALLY ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF IRAQ, MOVEON rightfully accused CONGRESS of "spending time cracking down on a newspaper ad" after failing last Wednesday (JUST ONE DAY PRIOR) to pass a bill by Senator Chuck Webb of Virginia lengthening the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, a bipartisan measure that some regarded as pressuring Presdient Bush into limiting the redeployment of U.S. forces or implementing THE DRAFT to have the immediate force levels required to meet the desired operations tempo the NEOCONS want to maintain for the next decade or GET OUT OF IRAQINAM. Both Congress and the President have a slew of multiple choice selection to choose from, but WHAT A NERVE SINGLING OUT ONE GENERAL'S HONOR TO PROTECT AS CONGRESS CONTINUES SCREWING OUR TROOPS. Reportedly many Democratic strategists were privately furious at the group for launching an attack on a member of the military rather than Bush, arguing that it gave Republicans a point on which to attack the Democrats and to rally around the administration's war policy. (Any Democratic strategists that feels this way better get use to it, and put their heads together with their Republican counterparts and figure out how to sell the American people on implementing THE DRAFT, because the more OUR TROOPS watch how Congress one day REJECTS giving the vast MAJORITY of lower ranking Boots on the Ground precious relief from operations tempo, then the next turns around to DEFEND the Honor of One General that assists Bush and them in maintaining such an Operations Tempo that most Americans workers would not tolerate nor put up with including most Unionized workers - it is only a matter of time BEFORE Out Troops WISE UP to what Congress, and the President (any President) is doing to them and say, "WE QUIT UNLESS YOU IMPLEMENT THE DRAFT." The Washington Post mentions an uneasy alliance between MoveOn and the Democratic party. MoveOn, after its rather guerrilla start, has increasingly become part of the Democratic establishment in Washington. It has donated money and lent its Washington director, Thomas Mattzie, to a coalition of liberal groups with major funding from wealthy donors that organizes in an office on K Street to promote opposition to the war.

Despite MOVEON's association with the Democratic Party in past elections, and having both O'bama and Al Gore come recently speak at MOVEON events, the organization has no plans of campaigning for or endorsing any political candidate during the primaries. Eli Pariser, MOVEON's Director said: "We're not accountable ultimately to the Democrats. We're accountable to people who want a swift end to the war, and that's the end goal here."

Major Hanafin's comment: As I have mentioned in previous Blogs, money that could have gone to political campaigns is INSTEAD THANK GOD going to planning activities to seriously END THE IRAQ WAR, counter-military recruitment, speaking engagements at high schools, colleges, and universities. Action at state level. The emails that I observe in my inbox from Voters for PEACE, True Majority, Moveon, and other massive nation-wide grassroots movements that previously had a political campaign emphasis and have now joined the anti-Iraqinam war movement tell me that what Eli Pariser says is true. The American electorate no longer TRUSTS our members of Congress or politicians in general to END THEIR MISTAKE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BECAUSE THEY ARE EITHER AFRAID OF LORD BUSH OR ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM NOT THE SOLUTION.

Pariser acknowledged that some of the group's members did not like the ad. But, he said, "MoveOn is going to be as strong as ever." He added, "We definitely will be putting pressure on Democrats, and especially those who voted against us, in the near future, and we are currently working on the best way to do that."

Since the ad appeared, Republicans have attacked MoveOn relentlessly. During the congressional hearings last week, several GOP lawmakers called on Democrats to condemn the MoveOn ad, and since then, a barrage of criticism has come from several Republican presidential candidates and, finally, Bush.

In response to a question at a news conference yesterday, the president said that few Democrats had condemned the ad, "which leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org, or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military."

For MoveOn's supporters, the special notice from Bush may only serve to validate its confrontational style. "I think he just raised MoveOn several million more dollars," said Erik Smith, a Democratic media consultant.

Almost two weeks after the ad ran, MoveOn found itself almost universally condemned by Senate Democrats and Republicans.

Once Republicans started circulating an amendment that would blast MoveOn for "impugning the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the U.S. Armed Forces," Democrats wrote their own version that criticized the MoveOn ad but also denounced Republicans for attacking the military record of Kerry in 2004 through the Swift boat ads.

Between the two measures, nearly every member of the Senate had repudiated MoveOn, including Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Obama, who both voted for the Democratic version that did not include MoveOn's name but said there had been an "unwarranted personal attack" on Petraeus.

IN CLOSING, and I REPEAT, frankly the Democratic Party needs MOVEON and related POPULISTS MOVEMENTS more than MOVEON.org needs the Democratic Party, and that is what has the War Monger Wing of both parties up in arms (no pun intended). This is worthy of putting on my MilBlog at Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and Veterans for America (VFA) the forward thinking Veterans of America. Outstanding analysis here of WHY both parties, but especially the Dems BETTER take Moveon serious about ENDING IRAQINAM, because MOVEON is into large scale, nation-wide, grassroots Coalition building that could be the key to a Third Party movement anchored on Ending U.S. occupaton of foreign nations. One only needs google who Moveon is allied with, including True Majority and so on to see that dollars that could be going to politcal campaigns are INSTEAD going to END IRAQINAM. The sooner both Democrats and Republicans realize that the better off OUR TROOPS will be. JUST A THOUGHT. It is no longer about VICTORY or GLORY, it IS about saving lives and MONEY. (WINK)

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Military Families Speak Out - OHIO