MoveOn Joins With Brave New Films to Oppose Afghanistan War

MoveOn.org, the progressive grassroots action group with five million members, today emailed their supporters to urge them to host a screening of Brave New Foundation’s “Rethink Afghanistan” film. BNF calls the film “a great way to start a dialogue that will help build the movement to end the war.” From the email, which I can’t seem to find on MoveOn’s site:

In the face of a coming request for thousands more troops for Afghanistan, President Obama and his advisers are reassessing their strategy in Washington. And in living rooms across the country, Americans of all stripes are beginning to raise serious questions of their own. We’re all grappling with how to end the war as quickly and responsibly as possible.

That’s why we’re partnering with Brave New Foundation on their new film, Rethink Afghanistan. It’s an incisive and powerful documentary that provides an important perspective for the ongoing debate.

The email goes on to ask supporters if they’d be interested in hosting screenings of the film between Oct. 7 and 14 to coincide with the eighth anniversary of the war.

Greg Sargent reported on Friday that MoveOn was emailing supporters to tell the Obama administration to seek “clear exit strategy” as his strategy review progresses. This marks quite the shift for MoveOn: the group took flak from the left earlier this year when it didn’t oppose Obama’s first round of troop increases for Afghanistan. It’s tread a delicate balance since Obama’s election, as it gained a ton of new members by hugging the Obama campaign so tightly, which puts it in a delicate position of wanting to press Obama from the left while retaining its pro-Obama base of support.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued on Sunday that setting a date for withdrawal in Afghanistan would be a “strategic mistake.” MoveOn isn’t calling for that, to be clear, but might move in that direction as it “grappl[es] with how to end the war as quickly and responsibly as possible.”