FRANK RICH, LIGHTEN UP ON MOVE-ON.ORG

Frank Rich in his column (subscription required) in today's The New York Times takes a swipe at the Move-on.org democrats who ran the "General Be-tray-us" ad. Lighten up, Frank. By the way, have you taken a close look at the ad? It actually poses a question, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"

Okay, I agree it is a bit juvenile to play around with someone's last name. However, Gen. Petraeus is a public figure and has inserted himself into the political arena by being a spokesman for George Bush.


Furthermore, I submit Move-On is asking a legitimate question. Is David Petraeus going to serve merely as Bush's political hack and front man, or is he going to tell the truth that the War in Iraq is beyond winning, a bloody result of the catastrophic mistake of Bush's foreign policy?

Or do critics of Move-on.org including Frank Rich think citizens should never criticize generals or army officers who wear lots of ribbons? This reminds me of the reaction of churchmen when someone criticizes their doctrine or their life style. They react by accusing the critics of disrespect for authority. Here we get the same reaction from people, mostly Republicans, who again cry disrespect.

Remember the generals report to civilians in the United States, and they are servants of American civilians. When those civilians ask hard questions of the generals, please don't be like the church authorities and try to squelch the criticisms in place of answering the complaints with reasoned arguments.