GOP counterattack

Dallas Morning News | Mark Davis:

“The Republican National Committee has launched an ad on its Web site that leaves no doubt where the war debate is headed. It is time to pass judgment on the pronouncements of the harshest war critics.”

The headline leaves no doubt that Mark Davis is not interested in reasoned discussion. He's on the attack. Consensus is not his goal. Victory in Iraq is not today's focus. Defeat of the Democratic Party is. Truth is willingly sacrificed towards that end.

Others have already debunked the GOP ad in embarrassing detail.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)'s call for a drawdown of troops after the current election pretty much echoes word for word what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld himself has said in public. But it sounds so much more defeatist if you wave a white flag in front of the Senator.

Senator Kerry's sound bite was taken out of a context in which he was urging Iraqis to conduct the house-to-house raids that American soldiers are undertaking, and risking their lives over, today. Again, this echoes the Administration's own stated goals, goals they have been unable to achieve because of incompetent prosecution of this war from the beginning. Distract attention by making Democratic calls for doing it right seem slanderous.

The closing scene, where the camera pulls back to reveal a US soldier watching the ad play on a big screen television, has been revealed to be a doctored shot. In truth, the soldier was watching a cartoon, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Perhaps this whole fraudulent video ad should be titled How the GOP Stole the Truth. With a minor credit to Mark Davis for his supporting role.