The Pentagon’s public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of "progress" in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that [...]

With General Petraeus’ stop on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric now halfway over, it’s worth taking a moment to unpack the unchallenged, false assertions and implications he’s piled up thus far on his media tour. We decided to look into the claims he made about “oil spots” of “progress” during his interview with NBC’s David Gregory. Both claims were absolute fantasies, and the remaining journalists on Petraeus’ tour owe their viewers more rigorous skepticism than what we saw on Meet the Press.

In a break from Andrew Card’s 2002 strategy that “you don’t introduce new products in August”, General David Petraeus has kicked off an intensive media blitz today with the express purpose of turning public opinion in favor of a delayed troop withdrawal from Afghanistan rather than an accelerated withdrawal beginning in July 2011.

General Petraeus’ media blitz is just getting started. We’ve got to push our media–hard–to ask real questions and prevent easily disproved spin from polluting the debate. Petraeus wants to change public opinion, and he’s spending your money to sell you a brutal, futile war that’s not making us safer. If you’re tired of this kind of manipulation, join the tens of thousands of other people working to end this war with Rethink Afghanistan.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex) cannot name a single issue on how the Republican Party today differs from the Republican Party during the Bush administration. Watch.

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The wealthy beltway journalist crowd just can’t believe that the President might be asking them to sacrifice for their fellow citizens.