I hate to admit it, but I’m kind of tired of Joe Lieberman talk. I don’t care for now, nor did I before. He’s just not my kind of Democrat, and frankly strikes me as having more pro-Israel feelings than pro-American. He’s a part of several Groups that I consider Right Wing Hawk organizations, The Committee on the Present Danger and The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. So, I’m about as interested in him as I am the Right Wing Republican clones.
There is, however, a really thoughtful article on the Huffington Post by Suzanne Nossel, Lieberman’s Problem, And Ours that’s well worth reading. Her point is that it’s not just Lieberman’s support of the ongoing war in Iraq that matters. She says:
The crux of Lieberman’s problem is his unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of what’s happened in Iraq, and to demand accountability for it. Iraq has now replaced 9/11 as America’s "prism of pain" – – the trauma-tinged lens through which everything else is viewed. Everyone from Chuck Hagel to Richard Holbrooke to Ret. General William Odom has judged Iraq worse than Vietnam. Against that backdrop, its just not enough for Lieberman to quickly state that he’s previously been "critical" of the Administration’s post-invasion errors, and then move on to an impassioned plea about why we can’t leave Iraq now.
No matter what they believe we must do next, any candidate who doesn’t come to grips fully with the folly of Iraq risks political oblivion. While the public may be over debates on the manipulation of pre-war intelligence, they know that things went badly wrong en route to and in Iraq, and that no one has paid for these avoidable and costly errors. Given the severity of the consequences of the war, the public is right to demand a sharp focus on what went wrong, why and who bears responsibility.
She is, of course, completely correct. Lieberman talks about Iraq as if being there in the first place is okay. It’s not okay at all. We went there on false pretenses. The "democratization of Iraq" is an add-on excuse for being there in the first place. We went there to effect a "Regime Change," code for deposing Saddam Hussein. We’re there now to cover Bush’s ass for going there in the first place. So, Joe Lieberman and anyone else who is talking about staying there for some lofty reason is just full of, well, just blowing smoke. It’s essentially normalizing a crime.
Thanks for this clear articulation of the problem, Ms. Nossel. It’s a point that cannot be overly emphasized…
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