Irony has no place here

[From Richard Cohen of the *Washington Post*](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/17/AR2007091701394.html):

The swipe at Petraeus was contained in a full-page ad the antiwar group MoveOn.org placed in the New York Times last week. It charged that Petraeus was “cooking the books” about conditions in Iraq and cited statements of his that have turned out to be either (1) not true, (2) no longer true, (3) possibly not true or (4) like everything else in Iraq, impossible to tell. **Whatever the case, using “betray” — a word associated with treason — recalls the ugly McCarthy era, when for too many Republicans dissent corresponded with disloyalty.**

Unlike, say, 2001-present when for [too](http://theconservativepatriot.com/blog/2006/06/antiamerican_leftwing_media_am.html) [many](http://agonist.org/files/active/0/ashamed.jpg) [Republicans](http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2006/07/weekends-with-sulzbergers.html) [dissent](http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14345_The_Media_Are_the_Enemy&only) [corresponded](http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=6123_A_Phony_Apology_Isnt_Good_Enough&only) [with](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1896884/posts) [disloyalty](http://www.amazon.com/Treason-Liberal-Treachery-Cold-Terrorism/dp/1400050308).