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Senator Me and the Great Divide
Chuck Hagel (a/k/a Senator Me) embarassed our Red State bloviating before Gen. Petraeus today. He as much as said that he would not believe the general–that this administration could not be trusted and the general was just a pawn of the administration.
“C’mon!” he bellowed, “Where’s it (Iraq) going?”
He tacitly accused Gen. Petraeus of cooking the numbers. It was clear he was not buying what the general was saying about progress in Iraq. He would not be convinced. He chose to take the word of 7 isolated NCO’s who expressed their personal opinions in the NYTimes a few weeks ago over Gen. Petraeus’s thorough analysis.
Hagel would not be persuaded. It was nauseating.
Owen West, who served two tours with in Iraq as a Marine, says that Gen. Petraeus, though committed to the battle, is not lying about the situation there. And viewpoints like Sen. Hagel’s point up a new and disturbing national divide:
. . . In July’s Gallup Poll on America’s most trusted institutions, the military ranked highest with a 69% confidence rating. Congress ranked last (below HMOs), with a 14% confidence rating.
So it was surprising to see that, according to an August CNN poll, 68% of Americans said Gen. David Petraeus’s congressional testimony on Iraq this week would not sway their personal view one way or the other. Worse, 53% of Americans do not trust him to report what’s really going on in Iraq, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll published Monday.
This wrenching inconsistency indicates a deeper problem than a fickle public or an inherent distrust in hierarchy. The poisonous partisan climate in Washington has seeped beyond the Beltway and is now harming the public’s trust in the institution that will continue to sacrifice most in the coming years. Extremists from both political parties have used Iraq as a zero-sum emotional battle for votes instead of putting the battlefield in proper context.
. . . Monday’s MoveOn.org advertisement, which depicted Gen. Petraeus as a traitor, has been dismissed by Sen. Reid as an inconsequential distraction. But according to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research group, the ad reflects the growing distrust of a Democratic Party that may be taking cues from its leadership. Last month 76% of Republicans expressed confidence in the military to give an “accurate picture of the war,” while only 36% of Democrats did.
This explains the collective skepticism surrounding Gen. Petraeus’s comments but does not excuse it. For while the country can thrive as a politically divided nation, its ability to defend itself diminishes alongside faith in the fidelity of the military. The unbalanced portrayal of the conduct of our soldiers has done damage enough. To impugn our warriors’ motives as political is thoroughly corrosive and hurts all Americans.
Stepping back from the froth, this week will strengthen the country if our political leaders recognize two things. First they must resist the urge to engage in what traders call “backtrading” and prevent hindsight bias from clouding future decisions. Whether or not the decision to invade Iraq was correct, whether or not our presence created al Qaeda in Iraq or attracted them or emboldened other enemies, we now face the complex task of securing America while living up to some responsibility in Iraq.
Second, they must recognize that a bipartisan course of action must be chosen in the context of a much larger war on terror. If the politicians continue pulling the country apart, this game of chicken will end badly and imperil both Iraq and the U.S. If America were hit tomorrow there would be more finger-pointing than ranks closing. That must change.
Finally, we should remember that . . . Gen. Petraeus is a guardian whose lifelong calling is service to his country. He knows the enemy. He knows our limitations. And he is telling the truth.
Red State Rascals
September 16th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
[…] week Senator Me bellowed at Gen. Petraeus that southern Iraq was out of control, that it was lost in lawlessness. Well, not […]
Red State Rascals
October 16th, 2007 at 6:05 am
[…] Senator Me, among others, said last month during the Petraeus/Crocker hearings that southern Iraq had devolved into lawlessness. Predictions were that the British pullout would only make it worse. […]