Petition for General Patreaus

I got this from a RedState email.

Dear RedState Reader,

All the best,

I'm sorry to have filled your inbox this week, but there are so many pressing matters this week.

First up, please consider signing Congressman Mike Conaway's petition in support of General Petraeus, who keeps getting attacked by the Democrats to undermine his credibility.

Second, The Democrats and the media are at it again.  This week is very instructive for how the media and Democrats coordinate their activities together.  It also shows just how ignorant Democrats and the media are about the military, both equating a military presence with actually being at war.  Do we want a President who shows such a profound misunderstanding?

Barack Obama has said repeatedly in the past several weeks, things like this:  "[McCain] wants to continue this war in Iraq maybe for another 100 years."

Then Obama's campaign strategist would say, as he did Monday morning on MSNBC, "Senator Obama hasn't said that Senator McCain said we would be at war for 100 years."

The media would then report on the Presidential campaign using quotes from Barack Obama like this one in the Chicago Tribune:  “Meanwhile, Sen. McCain has been saying I don’t understand national security, but he’s the one who wants to keep tens of thousands of United States Troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years,’ Obama said.”

No where would they point out that major nonpartisan fact checking organizations have called that statement a "gross distortion."

Just so you have the facts, here is what John McCain said in response to a question about leaving troops in Iraq for 50 or 100 years:

"We've been in Japan for 60 years, we've been in South Korea for 50 years, that'd be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.  That's fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training and recruiting and equipping people."

Clearly McCain was talking about a peace time standing presence.  The "not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed" line kind of gave that away.

Notwithstanding that, the DNC is now out with an email blast begging for money, saying again that John McCain wants to fight another 100 years.  No doubt the media will keep repeating it, never pointing out the gross distortion of what McCain said.  It is important, however, that we all have the facts to point out the Democrats and media are working together to push this lie.

Of course, it could just be that the Democrats are clueless about the military.  Someone should ask the Democrats if they think we're still at war with the confederacy, the Germans, and the Japanese given all the standing American armies in the South, Germany, and Japan.

Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com

Liberal Values does not agree