Foundation for Defense of Democracies

In spring 2007, American support for the mission in Iraq was in dire condition. Public approval had plummeted, and just as new U.S. forces were deploying in Iraq, Congress was threatening to undo the new counterinsurgency strategy known as “the surge.”

With General Petraeus set to deliver his first progress report to Congress in September, an anti- mission movement led by MoveOn.org and other far-left organizations announced the “Iraq Summer,” a multimillion-dollar advocacy campaign urging a complete troop retreat from Iraq.
 

In spring 2007, American support for the mission in Iraq was in dire condition. Public approval had plummeted, and just as new U.S. forces were deploying in Iraq, Congress was threatening to undo the new counterinsurgency strategy known as “the surge.”

With General Petraeus set to deliver his first progress report to Congress in September, an anti- mission movement led by MoveOn.org and other far-left organizations announced the “Iraq Summer,” a multimillion-dollar advocacy campaign urging a complete troop retreat from Iraq.

As summer neared, their momentum appeared so formidable that Agence France-Presse reported: “Even senior Republicans have said they expected the president will have little choice but to make adjustments in the Iraq strategy once the [Petraeus] report is made public.” Several Republican senators had already distanced themselves from the counterinsurgency strategy.

Clearly, a massive public education effort was needed to counteract the movement’s propaganda and momentum. Such a campaign had to be developed and deployed immediately to:

• call attention to the surge’s remarkable progress;
• underscore the necessity of giving our forces the support, resources, and independence to achieve their mission; and
• remind Congress and the American public of the dire consequences a hasty retreat from Iraq would mean to national security and world peace.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies took responsibility for organizing and directing this effort. We launched the Iraq Project coalition on July 9 in partnership with veterans organizations, families that had lost a loved one in Iraq, pro-mission grassroots organizations, and noted military and foreign policy scholars.

In three months, the coalition reversed public opinion and gave members of Congress the political breathing room they needed to support Petraeus’ initiatives in Iraq.

The coalition supervised and coordinated a program that placed more than 3,000 calls and e-mails to congressional offices, met more than 1,000 times with members of Congress, delivered to Congress a petition of support with more than 70,000 signatures, generated more than 2,500 media placements, ran three national tours in more than 100 cities, spoke out at 62 town hall meetings nationwide, and distributed 540 research and analysis commentaries attesting to the surge’s progress and the importance of achieving a successful outcome.

The coalition members fought strategically, stoking outrage over MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us” ad, turning it into a defeat for the leftist grassroots giant, and recruiting former John Batiste, who had earlier aligned with the anti-mission forces, to coauthor an op-ed supporting the new strategy.

In September, days before Petraeus was set to testify, a congressional leadership staffer thanked the Iraq Project coalition for its effectiveness, noting, “I can’t believe I’m saying this considering where we started, but I would much rather be in our shoes right now than theirs [anti-mission activists].”

The results were striking. Before the coalition was formed, a CBS/New York Times poll asked the country in late June if the surge made the situation in Iraq better or worse. Twenty-four percent said “worse”; only 17 percent said “better.” By early August. 35 percent answered “better,” and only 12 percent said “worse.” In February 2008, Gallup measured “the most positive review of the surge” yet, with 43 percent of Americans believing that it is improving the situation in Iraq.