Sen. Bob Corker and Rep. Zach Wamp on Monday denounced an ad taken out in the New York Times by MoveOn.org ad attacking Commanding General David Petraeus.
Sen. Corker said he had joined colleagues in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to denounce the ad.
“I know Gen. Petraeus personally and believe him to be a man of great integrity. It is absolutely unconscionable that any group would try to politicize and diminish his service to our country in this disingenuous way,” said Corker.
“Regardless of how anyone in this country may feel about our situation in Iraq and the best way forward, Gen. Petraeus – who has served our country with courage, honor and distinction for more than three decades – deserves our utmost respect. I hope my colleagues will join me in giving him our respect and in actually listening to the testimony he and Ambassador Crocker deliver this week.”
Rep. Wamp said, “I am disgusted today that the group MoveOn.org would actually buy a full page ad in the New York Times with a banner headline that says ‘General Petraeus or General Betray Us?’ That is an attack against a great American – the very best person that we have in the United States military to be commanding our operations in Iraq. He knows more about anti-insurgency and the way to attack these terrorists that are killing our men and women than anyone else.”
“He’s doing a patriotic job, and this group, which is a political group, is making politics out of this most important effort to secure our nation’s liberty against the terrorists. That they would do this the day before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, to me is outrageous. It is over the top and I think the American people should reject it.”
“Much progress is being made by the United States military. The Government Accountability Office did not give enough good coverage or attention to what’s happening in Anbar. We have moderates now, in country, tribal leaders turning against Al Qaeda and siding with us. Civilian deaths are way down. We are making a lot of progress. Is it still bloody and difficult? It is, and during Ramadan, it may get worse. We cannot retreat. The stakes are way too high for a precipitous withdrawal. We are seeing bipartisan support for this, and yet we’re seeing the liberal left leadership completely reject everything Gen. Petraeus has to say.”
“The thing that is not acceptable is political progress being made by the Maliki government. There’s no question that the political progress and the benchmarks that Congress gave are not being met. But the benchmarks militarily are being met.”
“If we leave, they are going to follow us anywhere in the world because this is a long term threat. It is a generational threat. This is not about Iraq. It’s not George Bush’s war. It needs to be our country’s fight. We went in together and in 16 months, Bush and Cheney will be gone. These problems will not be gone. This threat will not be gone. It takes the men and women in uniform of our armed forces to stand up and protect our way of life. They are doing that and we need to support them. This is too important. This is big day, a big week. This is where we either show commitment or we are in retreat.”
“We must be very careful in how we proceed. We need to do it together, there doesn’t need to be partisan division like there is today and we need to support Gen. Petraeus. We need to stand behind our troops and we do not need to leave precipitously and leave orderly over time and as the military leaders provide for.”