Lieberman on Iraq

He should be running for President. No wonder the Democrats hate him. They are everything they are not. Read his piece in the Wall Street Journal (and props to the Journal for running it in the open - unpaid) hat tip Here's a good read from Sen. Lieberman on his recent trip to Iraq.  To its credit the WSJ is running this one in the open. hat tip Rocketbrain

What I Saw in Iraq
Iran remains a problem, but Anbar has joined the fight against terror.

BY JOSEPH LIEBERMAN
Friday, June 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December. In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort in Baghdad has changed, with a new coalition military commander, Gen. David Petraeus; a new U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker; the introduction, at last, of new troops; and most important of all, a bold, new counterinsurgency strategy.

The question of course is--is it working? Here in Washington, advocates of retreat insist with absolute certainty that it is not, seizing upon every suicide bombing and American casualty as proof positive that the U.S. has failed in Iraq, and that it is time to get out.

In Baghdad, however, discussions with the talented Americans responsible for leading this fight are more balanced, more hopeful and, above all, more strategic in their focus--fixated not just on the headline or loss of the day, but on the larger stakes in this struggle, beginning with who our enemies are in Iraq. The officials I met in Baghdad said that 90% of suicide bombings in Iraq today are the work of non-Iraqi, al Qaeda terrorists. In fact, al Qaeda's leaders have repeatedly said that Iraq is the central front of their global war against us. That is why it is nonsensical for anyone to claim that the war in Iraq can be separated from the war against al Qaeda--and why a U.S. pullout, under fire, would represent an epic victory for al Qaeda, as significant as their attacks on 9/11.

Some of my colleagues in Washington claim we can fight al Qaeda in Iraq while disengaging from the sectarian violence there. Not so, say our commanders in Baghdad, who point out that the crux of al Qaeda's strategy is to spark Iraqi civil war.

Al Qaeda is launching spectacular terrorist bombings in Iraq, such as the despicable attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra this week, to try to provoke sectarian violence. Its obvious aim is to use Sunni-Shia bloodshed to collapse the Iraqi government and create a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, radicalizing the region and providing a base from which to launch terrorist attacks against the West.

Comments

[Josef K]

Thanks for posting this. I ran off the column and gave it to an Obama supporter I know. Don't know if Senator Lieberman got thru to him - will report back.

[allat]

"What I saw in IRaq"

Well, why don't we all admit that it was a terrible, terrible mistake taking Saddam Hussain out?!!

I knew even before we began to run him out.

He knew what he was doing. He ruled them with an iron fist. That's the only way to rule islamics. They are savages. They have no discipline. They don't even respect each other's mosques, for God's sake!

Those that Saddam imprisoned -or killed - there was a reason for it.

Now the Sunnis and the Shias are killing each other. Under Saddam these creatures, these cavemen, kept very still.

It was only when the International community listened to their complains that trouble began.

Now you can see that Saddam was necessary. We should have left him alone.

Now what are we going to do?

Keep sending our kids to be in the middle, while the primitive savages kill each other?

Today we send our batches of 18-yrs old. Next year it will be a new batch (which are at the present time 17 yrs old). Two yrs from now the present 16 yrs olds). Three yrs from now the ones who are resently 15 yrs old.)

Is this the way, we want our future? To send each new age group to war?

And is this not human sacrifice? Do we have a right to spend the lives of others? Our kids?

I say, let the islamic creatures, kill each other!