The attack on Petraeus has begun in earnest
Posted by Lance on 06 Jun 2007 at 2:45 am | Tagged as: Notes on the war, Military Matters, Lance's Page
Twisting words to justify any attack is the modus operandi that allows the Think Progress crowd and their allies to besmirch everybody in our military. They do support our military though, they really do. Just no particular members of it who have opinions which don’t serve their ends. They aren’t just wrong in that case, but liars, scoundrels, murderers, or worse. McQ breaks it down.
Technorati Tags: General Petraeus, Iraq, war
6 Responses to “The attack on Petraeus has begun in earnest”
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That’s really too bad, as I think there are some legitimate criticisms of Petraeus’ strategy, its implementation, and so on. Think Progress, however, is much more concerned with petty sniping than doing anything constructive (ironic, given the presence of “progress” in its title, I suppose). As usual.
I’m kinda more interested in the discussion over at QandO. Specifically the personal attacks leveled at Scott Erp. Did he have a point about the comments at Think Progress not being that much different from the comments at QandO? Does Erp deserve those kinds of attacks?
No there aren’t! Defeatist! Panty waist! Lying liberal goo goo!
I just went over and read the discussion. Actually I think he does have a point. I am no fan of some of Erb’s views, and he has a habit of occasionally saying some pretty mean things wrapped in a cloak of civility (though who doesn’t?), and I don’t mind being tough or the occasional zinger, but the commentary has become abusive. It is not spirited discussion with him anymore, it is Erb defending himself. How much can you learn from that?
To his credit, Erb has taken some of his views and adjusted them. I respect that. few people do.
Don’t make me link to the horrid video of Michelle Malkin doing her best Fast Times at Ridgemont High impression!
Also, I’m with ChrisB — the hostility of the QandO commenters is one reason why I stopped reading and participating over there.
I will say that Erb paints with a broad brush in lumping all the criticism together, but it is probably hard not to see reasonable disagreements and zingers as separate from the unreasonable one’s when you are the target. McQ is tough on him, but if it was just he and Erb, and McQ said the same things I generally wouldn’t fault McQ. In the torrent of criticism he gets it probably feels a bit worse. Also, Erb probably respects McQ more and feels the criticism a bit more for that reason.
I do understand where the critics are coming from, but it is overboard and unfair. Erb seems like a good guy to me, we are just pretty far apart on many things.