"MoveOn targets pro-surge Democrat"

Source:  The Hill – 8/29/2007

Thoughts:  This is one of the largest problems when it comes to conducting long wars. “War fatigue” is not a new concept, and it is so predictable that even many computer games (like the Civilization series) take fatigue into account during periods of war. When you combine that fatigue with partisan politics, it is difficult for a politician to make the correct decision without being vilified for it. The truth is, the surge is improving the short-term security of Iraq. The question is, is the surge worth the effort? MoveOn doesn’t think so while Rep. Brian Baird does. Who will win this battle? It is tough to tell, but the side with the money always has the advantage. Baird is looking at a long road ahead of him.

Article:  “MoveOn targets pro-surge Democrat”
By Aaron Blake

Rep. Brian Baird’s (D-Wash.) recent conversion on the Iraq war is beginning to affect more than the national dialogue. On Wednesday, liberal group MoveOn.org announced an ad campaign against the congressman in his own district.

Baird recently returned from a trip to Iraq and reversed his position on a withdrawal timetable, citing military progress in the four-year-old war.

(Article continues.)

MoveOn is calling the move a “flip-flop” and says it goes against the views of his constituents.

The ad does not make specific reference to Baird’s conversion. Instead, it features a soldier who served in Iraq talking about the amount of resistance troops encountered and at the end asks viewers to tell Baird to bring the troops home.

The soldier in the ad served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 and describes a scene from that time, long before the current troop increase that Baird has cited as the reason for military progress.

Baird voted against the war in 2003 and had opposed it until last month. Republicans have been quick to key on his remarks as evidence of progress in Iraq.

MoveOn disagrees, calling the war “unwinnable.”

(Read the rest of the article here.)