Petraeus Begins

Two thoughts on Gen. Petraeus’ opening remarks. First, his statement that the number of “security incidents” has declined in “8 out of the last 12 weeks” sounds very much like a statistic carefully constructed to gild a lilly lily. Second, MoveOn’s ad in the New York Times today makes some strong and fair points. But labeling Petraeus “General Betray Us” strikes me as unnecessary and unhelpful to MoveOn’s cause. Won’t slagging him personally — in language that suggests he’s a traitor — only alienate a lot of people, especially those with military backgrounds?