The best comment on here was written by Sandra Wiper from Minnesota…..no hysteria……no partisanship….simply effective and eloquent and true. Well done Sandra

The Republican mudslinging Swift Boat ads in the last election set the standard. They can dish it out but cannot take it.

Stop whining and get the troops out of that stupid, stupid war. Lose the "my way or the highway" attitude and solve some of our real problems.

Democrats are "irresponsible" when they try to help poor children but der Furher has no problem helping his rich friends.

President Bush and his supporters find fault with 'MoveOn.org's' ad yet they tolerate Iraqi president Jalal Talabani's insulting insistence that coalition forces release the recently detained Iranian accused of providing material assistance and training to those fighting against the Iraqi government and killing American troops. He didn't just ask for an explanation and clarification but rather indignantly demanded the Iranian's release and chastised American commanders. That is totally ridiculous and indicates the complete futility of having our troops there and the obnoxious irresponsibility of the Bush administration's continual self-serving justification for this conflict. Talabani is suppose to be Bush's ally, should be totally appreciative of all America is doing for his government and country and instead he is aggressively loyal to Iran. If that doesn't tell the true story, I don't know what does.

September 22, 2007 ended the last of our troops suffering and dying. From this day forward no more lives will be taken and no more families will be broken. Bullets will no longer penetrate God's poeple. We are all God's people no matter what race or religion.

Once again, CNN gets it wrong, although it's surprising since they got it right earlier this week.

It's said above that the vote was "unanimous", yet there was opposition to it, including Senator Clinton and Senator Obama among many others.

CNN has removed my comments about MoveOn.org. I have stated Mr. Bush was more then hapy to have the swiftboat adds for lies denagrae John kerry's service to his country ot that of Max Clealand who left limbs in Viet Nam. Now an indepenent group MoveOn has said something the right wants to spin, Cnn is happy to oblige,but no mention of the Swift Boat just to be fair and balanced. It seems CNN is becomming conservative. General Grange, anchors and new anchors. I hope there is mo censorship because I saw several removed.

HEY MG FROM SAN FRANCISCO
YOU HAVE ALOT OF NERVES SAYING THAT ANYONE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEIR CONDUCT.IT IS EVERYONE'S RIGHT TO SAY HOW THEY FEEL. AFTER ALL YOUR IGNORANT BEHIND RESPONDED, NOW DIDN'T YOU? YOU MIGHT BE FOR BUSH BUT ONLY AND JUST MAYBE 35% OF THE PEOPLE ARE FOR HIM. WHAT DOES THAT LEAVE? EVEN PEOPLE FROM DAY ONE THAT SUPPORTED HIM OR ARE REPUBLICANS AS WELL DON'T AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S DONE AND DOING. AND JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THIS SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT'S EXERCISING THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL OPINION ARE THE SAME PEOPLE THAT GOT YOUR ATTENTION!!! SO EVERYONE THAT RESPONDED WHO ARE AGAINST US MUST BE WITH US IN SOME KIND OF WAY. YOUR TIME ISN'T TO PRECIOUS BECAUSE WE GOT YOUR ATTENTION AND YOU RESPONDED.

In reading the comments on this thread and the one about Guiliani's staged phone call - I am horribly disheartened by the way these relatively immaterial things divide us as a country. We argue and scream at each other over the internet, commenting on inane (Guiliani) things or fundamental American rights (free speech) while our country disintegrates around us. I find that the source of much of this sensationalism is media organizations - sadly like CNN. I am going to start looking for media organizations not so politacally controlled for the news. We, as a country, need to get back to the basics.

United we stand, divided we fall.

MoveOn.org is a group of cowards and traitors as is code pink. I was at a rally tuesday on the lawn of the senate where grieving parents of soldiers killed in Iraq were meeting, and I personally went to those from those groups and asked them to please not be so heartless and to attack a group of Parents who had lost children, but did they listen, no. The yelled and ranted and harrassed these parents of our fallen. If you call that American then I must have fallen asleep for 100 years. In the 50's you would have been beaten to a pulp for that. How cowardess. This is America, we are at war and we need to be one. They will be the first that bin laden puts to death. He hates cowards too.

The spastic reaction of the screw ball right misses what the story said.

It did not say 12000 military personnel had contributed. It said 12000 people. The comment about the military was that they had been flooded with comments of support from them.

Once again both MoveOn.org and CNN are providing misinformation. Republicans did not block an effort to provide our troops more time off, as MoveOn wants you to believe. What they blocked was a flawed measure to REQUIRE the time (off) between deployments to be equal to or greater than the time served on the most recent deployment. The actual text of the measure is listed below.

“No unit or member of the Armed Forces specified in paragraph (3) may be deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom (including participation in the NATO International Security Assistance Force (Afghanistan)) unless the period between the deployment of the unit or member is equal to or longer than the period of such previous deployment. “

We all know that there is a TREMENDOUS need to allow out troops time off to be with their loved ones and obtain much needed rest. This measure, however, would have limited our ability to move in a moments notice to wherever needed and with the level of troops required. That is why it was defeated. Hey MoveOn… Before you can “keep speaking the truth…” you need to START telling the truth.

What happened to the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech)? I guess that went out the window after the 2000 election was over? So, we let Neo-Nazi groups & the KKK have the right to speak, but not a Non-for-Profit Organization… What rights will we lose next during this term? I guess Americans haven’t had enough of the War in Iraq, Over-priced Health Care & Education, while ensuring that our kids will be paying off our deficit. Wait I forgot something. Having the Social Security system bankrupted with the next 5 years. Are you concerned yet America? If not, you should be! Best of luck to us all.

My, my, the discussion does get heated and personal in this forum. For the record, I support moveon.org, but my reason for writing is to ask why the article starts with: "One day after the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution condemning MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us” ad", when the resolution was hardly "unanimous"? In fact, much is being made of Senator Clinton's courage in voting "no" on the resolution. I've been wavering in my support for her, but her vote was the right one in this case.

What a load of BS…no one in the military other than a few disgruntled REMFs would fall prey to this group of extremist hacks.

MoveOn and their uber-liberal groupies have absolutely no basis to make that accusation at Gen. Pertraeus. They surely aren't living in Iraq or serving there. They base these assertions from left-leaning editorials and meaningless opinion polls. Wake up America! Gen. Petraeus is the commander on the ground. His job isn't to create foreign policy or come up with reasons why we should or should not support it. Seems to me that MoveOn and the radical liberals who support them have committed an egregious error of misplaced anger.

What is truly "disgusting" is the foul stench of the commentary from all the above liberal mugwumps who have a big yellow stripe painted down their backs.

They all sit in their cozy houses sipping chai and lattes and comment about stuff they have absolutely no knowledge about. After reading their vitriol, it is clear that not a single one of these mugwumps have ever served in Iraq or Afghanistan. They have never seen a jihadist up close and personal and have no concept of the hatred that drives these terrorist pukes to want to kill any and all Americans; simply because we are Americans.

Their nearsightedness is appalling. Do you mugwumps honestly believe if we pull out of Iraq right now the terrorists will say, "Thank you very much we will not attack you anymore"? Or the naive belief that diplomacy or isolationism will actually work with non-state terrorist organizations. Get a clue! We are going to be fighting these SOBs across the world for the next 30+ years. You liberals need to start getting used to it.

A truly patriotic president would have said that the ad was an expression of the rights we hold dear. A president who was a true "uniter" would have said something like, "Our men are fighting for the rights of all of us to express our opinions. Read the information brought by the general and make your own conclusions." If he were a big man instead of a little man…

"CNN deletes Comments from this forum"
should be the headline.

Obviously, if they say nothing about congress voting against our freedom of speech by voting to condemn those that speak out against this administration and congress and do not even report on the congress's vote to end habeas corpus this week, they are part of the problem not part of the solution!

Just check back in 5 minutes, CNN will have deleted this comment because it casts a negative image on them. Is CNN in favor of freedom of speech?

They have now deleted my last four comments to this article.

I guess I will have to start a blog on this.

>Better republican than gay loving baby abortion killers. Hate to think where we would be if that ass Gore had the presidency on Sept.11,2001. He was right though, He had a couple of chads missing!

>Posted By Daryl Hauser Sutherlin, Or

Another poster child for educational reform

Better republican than gay loving baby abortion killers. Hate to think where we would be if that ass Gore had the presidency on Sept.11,2001. He was right though, He had a couple of chads missing!

We are in a covert Pre-Totalitarian state, most Americans have no idea what has happen. Our Media, congress, religious backers and even the president have been manipulated by powerful & wealthy covert groups. Some are closer to the source than others, but all are influenced.

I'm afraid by the time America wakes up we'll be a shattered nation….the cracks have already been started….they have us fighting each other while they go about their business…..we are being attacked from within……Wake up!!!

Somewhere in Texas a town is missing their idiot.

for the joker who said look up the generals military record, he should get his facts straight, this is his third tour to iraq, not his first, he wrote the book on how to counter terrorism. As far as 30 years of military service if I recal correctly in the the last 30 years there have not been any major fights until after 9/11, we have only had skirmishes, and we don't send in the entire force for something that can be taken of with a division. So go check his BIO I am sure that you will find plenty out about this man.
For those who support us here thank you, for those of you who say you support us but won't back us, move to Russia, see how you like it there.

Simply another chance for the party of division and manipulation of the ignorant to distract from what is important and vital to our future in order to score political points. Seriously I don't know how an average, logical member of the Republican party (and I do assume there are some) can even stand to be associated with these people in government.

Definition of a conservative Republican:

self-serving, religious zealot (or you vote like one), ignorant (because you ignore common sense and the facts), xenophobic, homophobic, Doesn't like anyone who didn't grow up on the ashes of the American Indians, weren't those people a bunch of European IMMIGRANTS?

Before you stereotype me, I'm a straight, white 2nd generation decendant of European immigrants with a couple of kids. And I still think you're a bunch of loosers that are ruining it for the rest of us.

People who compare MoveOn ads with SwiftBoat ads are ridiculous. First, MoveOn attacked Petraus before he gave his speech. MoveOn has no first hand experience or credibility in military or intelligence. The 250 SwiftBoat people are really military veterans and some POWs who served in Vietnam. 11 of them actually served with John Kerry. They were there. The biggest problem the SwiftBoat people have with Kerry is that Kerry has once testified that US soliders most likely had raped and murdered Vietnamese civilians, including babies. You people need to understand this is a very emotional charge.

Enough already on this phoney issue! We live in a free country in which people can say what they wish.

The republicans are trying to make political hay out of this one because they have little to make hay with nowadays. The democrats on the otherhand should be reminding people that we live in a free country and we entitled to say what is on our minds.

MoveOn.org is right about the military. There is growing disgust with this war among the military. The toll that it has taken upon military families has been terrible. And to think that some of these people will be going back again and again (5,6, maybe 7 times in the future); their disgust will grow even more.

I do not blame the military, they are doing their job. General Petraeus's report to congress was something the administration was supposed to do. But since the administration has no more cred that job fell to the General. I never expected him to tell congress that the 'surge' was a failure; he would have been without a job

Gen Petraeus is a career minded army brass. He wrote several manuals on military srategy. On one of his manuals, he stresses that to get rid of insurgency the military has to provide 1 GI for 40 people. With his calculation, we need 675,000 soldiers to curb the violence and bring peace. That is the figure Gen Abizaid and Gen Franks (???) had recommended. And what happens? Both of these generals were forced to retirement. Gen Petreus knows that it is impossible to have that many soldiers. That is why he was recommending Bush's policy and getting high acclamation from Bush to clear his way for promotion.

The hypocracy of this administration is staggering. They are totally outraged about the ad, but will only shout about it from behind General Petraeus. That's because not a one of those cowards served in active duty military and they need him for credibility. (For you Bushies - serving only 4 years of a 6 year committment and violating the Hatch Act to boot DOES NOT constitute military service.)
My husband, father, sister, brother-in-law and many others of my friends and family have ties to the military and it sickens and infuriates me to hear bush's line about supporting the troops, even as he ignores the stateside plight of the wounded he sent into war.
Lest you still wonder - it was the president's good friend, Hunt, and his deal with the Kurds for their oil, that has made the possibility of a unified and working Iraq government nearly impossible. We are not in Iraq for democracy (bush wouldn't know what that was if it bit him), but for oil.

Until bush stops ordering the General, and the Republican leadership to stay the course. The Majority of the people will continue to support MoveOn.com, and their adds. They speak for the People of the U.S.A.!! NOT bush.

"12,000 emails from soldiers? This begs the question: 'Why do America's troops hate our troops?'"

Just because you do not support the current administration does not mean that you "hate the troops".

This is typical rightwing rhetoric.

To put it in layman's terms…you can love a football team and dislike the coach. Not liking the coach(es) does not mean that you hate the team.

The current administration has always been good at hiding behind words such as "Under God", Patriotic, and Good American so that if you do not agree with their policy it makes you look like that you an Atheist, Unpatriotic, and a Bad American.

The troops' duty is to do what the "commander in chief" and his General's ask them to do without question.
They have done that to their best ability. We have the greatest Armed Service's in the World thanks to the brave men and women who serve in them.

It is our job as Good Americans, Patriotic Americans to make sure that our Commander's In Chief's are using our troop's for missions that are in our nation's best interest and I think that a lot of American's are starting to see that we may have been led astray.
Remember these 2 "little things"?
Osama Bin Laden and Afganistan?
was it not them who really started this war with their attack on 9/11?

When will IGNORANT people stop equating disent for LEADERS who put our troops into harms way to the LACK of support for those troops? INTELLIGENCE dictates otherwise.

Also, you fiscal CONSERVATIVES, how do you FEEL about REPUBLICANS spending 500 BILLION DOLLARS on a WAR that should NEVER have been FOUGHT?!?

IGNORE the truth, STIFLE free speech, ATTACK disenters, CHERRY PICK the facts, look the other way…did I MISS anything?

MoveOn…keep the truth coming…we certainly will not get the truth from our elected (?) president and his cronies, nor unfortunately from other politicans afraid to stand up for freedom of speech. I must admit I admire Hillary Clinton for standing up for freedom of speech, whether or not she agreed with your ad.

I believe instead of talking about this stupid ad that CNN should be talking about the good we have done in Iraq so far and the real issues of this country. As a service memner I am disgusted that the media never talks about the progress being made but certainly keeps up with all the stupidity in the country. Lets talk about the real issues, securing our borders so the police officers like the one in AR are not shot down by illegals when they are doing their jobs. Lets talk about healthcare for legal citizens of this country and stop providing welfare for the illegals. Global warming needs to be adressed. These are the issues that need to be addressed not some stupid ad.

If I'm not mistaken, MoveOn is French for idiot.

oh, so now moveon.org is the problem.

unlike the bush administration, moveon readily displays where their information comes from. perhaps some of you moveon-bashers should visit the site.

meanwhile, the fox networks and rush limbaughs of the world spread their right wing interpretation of current events with nary a fact checker.

wake up, red state people. or maybe you're all too preoccupied enjoying the creature comforts of your high-performance, low-mileage sport utility vehicles.

as the son of a two-war veteran, i am appalled how this administration continues to stand for nothing but fearmongering, lies and death — the death of 4000 american soldiers, tens of thousands of iraqi civilians and, above all, the death of the truth.

this administration has spent enough money to give every man, woman and child on earth $120. perhaps we can buy friends around the world faster than we can kill these "trumped up" enemies. no, mr. president, what good would that do?

god bless our troops. it is a shame that their real enemy is their commander-in-chief.

I support MoveOn.org all the way instead of some wannabe Communist administration and its lying General! Trying to silence someone or a group for speaking out is reminiscent of the old Russia and Germany! They probably worship Hitler too but will never tell us that either!

Kris from Toronto, Canada, please let us know when you're going to crack jokes like that.

You made soda shoot out of my nose.

Oh I see…it's only okay when the Republicans attack someone's honor. How quickly the news media and the Republicans forget what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to John Kerry. Isn't this just another instance of "the pot calling the kettle black?"

As this ridiculous controversy clearly demonstrates American politics is literally in the toilet … and those who won’t admit it are the extremely wealthy who are benefiting, the marginally wealthy who think they are benefiting and those who simply try to be positive and ignore it. Over the last six plus years there has been an exhibition of complete control over one political party to facilitate the pursuit of a private agenda for the benefit of Special Interests and a select few, who then in return provide substantial financial and strong influential support. These efforts have been constant and include covert as well as overt activities while the average American, including the marginally wealthy, has been given only apathy, the costs, the problems and an abundance of subterfuge. The absolute gross dishonesty, the complete self-indulgence, the offensive and obnoxious arrogance and boldness and the unconscionable performance represent a sociopathic mentality that causes far more problems than just a political inequity – one example being the Iraq War. We can’t even expect to hold our corporate leaders to a high level of integrity if the example our politicians set is one of self-serving irresponsibility. All of this happens while the other political party just sits on their hands as if intimidated and afraid. The voters are the only hope to turn things around and to do so they must put their own individual biases and self-interests aside, to avoid once again being manipulated and deceived, and to instead demand honest, responsible and conscientious political performers. It is up to the voters to first honestly admit the truth so they can then expect better from the politicians.

Please, Clinton didn't use the media as his lapdog when he was president? Fox news- fair and balanced. It only seems conservative because Conservatives are right

What about the 'Swift Boat' ads against John Kerry. Why doesn't the news media use that as a comparison to the MoveOn.org ad and how the Republicans tried to distance themselves from that. To me, it's the same thing. I think it was a set-up, a soft-ball question for Bush at the news conference. Why do you, the media even report what is so obviously a manipulation of the media. At least moveon.org paid for their ad (which I believe was in bad taste), but Bush got his rhetoric for free.

Haven't we heard enough about this ad? Aren't there real issues to address?
Isn't it time to MoveOn?

The US Government is a joke now.

I suggest all those defending the General look up his military record. How in the hell a career soldier who managed somehow to avoid being assigned to an active combat area in nearly 30 years of military service ends up running the Iraq War is beyond me! Just lucky I guess. I can tell you this…George Patton would kick his ass back to Biloxi for the lies he has told which endanger his men and betray this nation. There is a difference between opposing the war and opposing the manner in which it is being conducted!!!

It has been reported that at Thursday's press conference, Bush intentionally called on FOX news (who was standing in the back of the room) to ask the final question regarding the Moveon.org ad. It allowed Bush to give his "disgusting" opinion and call it a day.

This administration uses the media as their puppets, and it seems to be working.

To Nicholas Thor

Thank you for your service to our country and know that many of us in the service are feeling the same way you are.

News flash: Liberals have grown a backbone and will not be kicked around anymore. Get used to it.

I believe no matter what you think about the war, this administrations response is designed to distract you from the war. Judging from several of these responses it has succeeded.

I don't think many believe Mr. Bush (I refuse to call him my President) tells the entire truth about much of anything, especially anything that reflects badly on him.

We talked about impeaching out last president for lying about who he had sex with, why are we not considering the same thing for a president that has lied about his reasons for war, and about how that same war is going?

I really don't understand people's priorities anymore…

This has nothing to do with free speech, it has to do with a civilian politician crossing the line and using a military leader as his spokesman for his distortions and lies. How many generals did King Decider already fire for disagreeing?

As a member of the army I hate to say it but I do somewhat agree with the moveon.org ad. The one thing many people forget is you can have an opinion that is anti war but that doesn't mean you are against the troops. It just simply means you are like the majority of this nation who no longer feels the need to support politicians who are out to line their own pockets.

Furthermore, when it comes down to it the generals that are in place now have been around long enough to know that if they don't give glowing remarks about the administration they lose their job. So if you wonder why the military is slowly turning liberal its because its the most accurate cross section of our nation and what the military feels normally reflects what the populace feels almost perfectly.

So regardless of your feelings about the ad the media should actually take up the pickets and attack all the politicians who have so far played a game of banter with the lives of America's youth.

As CNN do not want to post my message, let me reword it:

you are dead wrong in your argument. When Kerry was attacked by Swift Boaters, republicans never showed any outrage and there was no vote in the senate condemning it. Here, ar least 22 democrats joined with republicans to show their disapproval. That is the difference of mentalities between dems and republicans. Why didn't these republicans who voted to condemn the ad, voted for Webb amendment to show their support for the troops? That clearly shows these republicans are trying to protect Bush than their support to the troops. And, it was quite evident that Gen Petraeus was delivering Bush's message in a twisted way as if he was doing a favor to bring 30,000 troops home which didn't mean anything.

Lets call a spade a spade. These two guys are puppets on the GOPs strings. What do you expect? I say put the guy responsible on the hot seat. Of course that will never happen. He is insulated with these blindly loyal subordinates that are literally paid to say anything he wants. The dems drill them during the hearings but when voting time comes they melt like a snowball in h**/. My take is that many of you (dems) are tied to the same strings and this is all for show. The voters giveth and they can also, as you have seen, can taketh away. Dont forget whom you really work for. I don't care how many of you we have fire until we someone decent(honest), that embraces the constitution, is fair, does not discriminate, and is a team player, and who will be accountable to those who elected them.

I will try again…so the article states that .06% of the 2 million+ armed forces men and women are supporting a fringe element in US politics. Who cares? Moveon.org is made up of a bunch of whiny, politically motivaed losers that do not have anything better to do than spew their PAC bile across the pages of the NY Times…interesting that this was not prited in the WSJ or any other credible newsource.

In regards to Bob from San Fransisco: Your remarks are absolutely ludicrous. What you are doing is an attack on an attack of free speech. If you were such an advocate of free speech, you would be tolerant of Moveon.org's right to speak freely as well as the President's right to critcize Moveon.org.
No one is claiming Iraq to be "peachy". However, there is great potential in Iraq, which the liberal outlets (PACs, special interests, media, etc.) are choosing to ignore or downplay. You are absolutely right, however that it's not a Democrat/Republican thing. Our future depends on what happens in Iraq. It won't matter if we're the most powerful military force in the world if we are not strong enough to exercise it. People don't hate Bush for no reason, but the reasons given are lame, just like our credibility in the world if we fail to finish the job in Iraq.

Hey, Neil, you are dead wrong in your argument. When Kerry (Vietnam vet vs draft dodger Bush) was attacked by Swift Boaters, republicans never showed any outrage and there was no vote in the senate condemning it. Here, ar least 22 democrats joined with republicans to show their disapproval. That is the difference of mentalities between dems and republicans. Why didn't these republicans who voted to condemn the ad, voted for Webb amendment to show their support to the troops? That clearly shows that these chickenhawks are trying to protect Bush than their support to the troops. And, it was quite evident that Gen Petraeus was delivering Bush's message in a twisted way as if he was doing a favor to bring 30,000 troops home which didn't mean anything.

What a pack of lies. The military has no authority over dependents, but I sincerely doubt any military member with half his/her mind would willingly cross lines of insubordination. I would very much like to see these names, you know, to make sure there not 12,000 Jesse MacBeths.

Hey M.Stewart from Washington.

Respect is earned. So far we have nothing to work on here from this loser President. If you could name one good thing this Dork has done for our nation or the world, I may listen. Until then, myself and approx. 70% of the population will bash away!!!!!

let's keep arguing about an advertisement and ignore the big, pink elephant in the middle of the room.

"MoveOn also said it had raised $500,000″

And we're sure that the corrupt media( New York Times and CNN) will give you more illegal bonus deals for that $500,000. After all, your all pushing the same liberal agenda..

Maybe you would like to share your source and the nature of those e-mails, as I understand it, 90% of those were against MoveOn.org. I doubt CNN will post this at the head of the comments even though yours wasnt first either, Will, NYC.

It's interesting that liberals screamed, whined, and pouted when Senatory Kerry was attacked, but now it is OK when Petraeus is attacked before he could even say one word. At least there was evidence to support some of the claims against Kerry. Even Charlie Gibson basically called him a liar on GMA when he tried to falsify his version of the medal throwing incident.

Washington has really gone down the drain.

It was really funny listening to Laura Ingrahm run down the little geek MoveOn chose to represent them this morning on the 'Todays' show. This punk was barely out of diapers and looked like he was at the edge of a panic attack, when Matt gave Laura the last word.

Hey Will from NYC, don't be stupid. The article says 12000 individuals not soldiers. You should learn to read before you make any more stupid comments. Stop your Bush bashing and learn some respect

No one is attacking free-speech, Bob, just pointing out tasteless speech that gets this country NOWHERE in the end. Yeah, maybe attacking one of our American military leaders will end Islamic fundamentalism or sectarian violence, probably only from MoveOns obscured point of view.

We totally agree MoveOn. is bringing more amd more Military supporters to the table. I hope they continue with their socialist diatribe, it is really helping the American people see them for who they are.

Perhaps the add was not in great taste or the "pun" very clever. But it's disheartening that so many Democrats (along with much of the press) fell into lock-step over this issue with the Republicans and their make believe "outrage" over a simple advertisement that may have been pretty close to the mark. This is the type of thing that gets people wondering if the Democrats know what the heck they stand for or where their canoles are located.

I'm not advocating the appropriateness or inappropriateness of Moveon.org's ad, however, I am deeply saddened by the politician's spending time to pass yet another worthless resolution to condemn a PAID advertisement/editorial or however you want to put it. It was an opinion. If you don't agree, then you don't agree. If you have an opinion about it, then great. But congress spending time on this borders on censorship. I am a republican, but, to be FAIR, I didn't see this same type of outrage with the Swiftboat ads attacking John Kerry (and I'm no fan of his). Here is a double standard…… and our so-called leadership who is doing NOTHING but helping to keep this nation forever polarized should be ashamed of their conduct in this issue than a small group of people exercising their constitutional right to their opinion.

I am an ex-military man. I do not support the sentiments voiced by the moveon.org ad. However, the following needs be said:

1) General Petraeus is a big boy; they certainly don't give four stars and a bronze star with a 'v' for shrinking violets. As any flag officer knows, life is very political at that level and sometimes people just aren't nice. They should be ignored.

2) We have something in this country - something I was proud to contribute to - called freedom of speech. I may not like what a lot of people say (I try not to think of a lot of people out there spewing their bilge, on the right just as much as the left) - but I do feel strongly about the right to say it. if you don't like it, say something back, or better still, just ignore it.

3) Hasn't the senate got anything better to do with their time? Granted, they are often inept and hopelessly divided, but I can't help thinking that ignoring this ad would have been a better use of their limited brainpower and infinite ability to keep talking.

With all this, I believe it is obvious what the proper response to the ad SHOULD have been.

Hoo-ah

Chet Morrison

The conservatives have really been jumping on this ad to distract the sheep from the real issues. So now we're attacking free speech, eh? The Bush administration has lost all credibility with the US and the world, and we're all of a sudden supposed to believe things are peachy in Iraq? The message of the ad regarding cherry-picked evidence to paint a positive image of the war is true. We have seen progress in a Sunni-dominated area where we are arming people who've likely killed American soldiers in the past. And they will likely turn against the Americans again in the future.
And this is progress?
And this is the freedom that we're "fighting for"?

People don't hate Bush for no reason. We hate the administration for the harm that it's done to our country. I wish the supporters out there would wake up. It's not a Democrat/Republican thing, but an issue of our future.

12,000 emails from soldiers? This begs the question: 'Why do America's troops hate our troops?'