MoveOn Punishes Clear Thinking Democrats

This morning's Wall Street Journal nails it with their analysis of MoveOn.org and its attacks on congressional Democrats reporting recent progress in Iraq:

In the Hell Hath No Fury sweepstakes, groups like MoveOn.org are gearing up to take on a new set of perceived traitors in their midst--Democrats who have acknowledged some success from the troop surge in Iraq.

Chief among the targets is Washington Congressman Brian Baird, whose indiscretion was recognizing progress on the ground, despite having initially opposed the surge and having opposed the war in the first place. After a recent trip to Iraq, Mr. Baird said: "One of the things that gets very little attention is that virtually every other country I visited says it would be a mistake to pull out now."

We hope he took his flak jacket home from Baghdad. MoveOn is rolling out an ad this week in Mr. Baird's Washington district, in which a former soldier tells of being shot at in 2003 by the Iraqis he had fought to liberate and calls America's continued presence in the country "wrong, immoral and irresponsible." What does this have to do with the wisdom--or lack thereof--of the current strategy? Nada, which tells you something about MoveOn's honesty....

Mr. Baird is hardly alone in his assessment of progress in Iraq, even among Democrats. In the past month, Senate Democrats Carl Levin, Hillary Clinton, Dick Durbin, Bob Casey and Jack Reed have all acknowledged progress on the ground--though many still downplay the overall chances of success.

Representatives Keith Ellison (Minnesota) and Jerry McNerney (California) recently returned "impressed" by what they'd seen, though they were careful to temper their statements for any perceived optimism. After watching U.S. soldiers greet Iraqis in Arabic with "peace be upon you," Mr. Ellison reported that "they would respond back with smiles and waves" before quickly adding, "I don't want to overplay it." It's a measure of how far the antiwar left has moved the debate on Iraq that Mr. Ellison doesn't want to sound too enthusiastic about the chances that the U.S. might actually win.

The Journal's editorial provides more support for the notion that hard-line antiwar groups will do just about anything to deny the reality of military progress in Iraq; and they'll relentlessly smear anyone in power who deviates from the assumed netroots dominance of the "progressive" policy agenda.

What's so amazing about this is that many of the Democrats who've reported progress harbor strong left-wing credentials. (Keith Ellison's an American Muslim who's co-sponsored a House impeachment bill alleging high crimes and misdemeanors against President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney!)

Click here to view MoveOn's dishonest anti-Baird advertisment.

In my earlier posts on FireDogLake, I noted how wildly unhinged these hard-line radical attacks on war supporters have become (see here and here). Yet, the scope and vehemence of the antiwar project is astounding, and it's vital that pro-war supporters counter such left-wing hatred and propaganda.