random rants and references

Sen Joseph Lieberman (Dem,Conn) demonstrates a statesman's thinking and perspective on Iraq in this Article:

"The Senate and House of Representatives are bracing for parliamentary trench warfare--trapped in an escalating dynamic of division and confrontation that will neither resolve the tough challenges we face in Iraq nor strengthen our nation against its terrorist enemies around the world.

What is remarkable about this state of affairs in Washington is just how removed it is from what is actually happening in Iraq."

Sen Lieberman goes on to discuss the new war strategy and how it is focused directly on countering the al-Qaeda strategy of inciting a Sunni-Shiite civil war and how to observe and judge from facts on the ground and the nation's interests rather than from calcified political party positions. He argues strongly against the war opponents' view that our withdrawal will be beneficial to either the Iraqis or ourselves :

"In fact, halting the current security operation at midpoint, as virtually all of the congressional proposals seek to do, would have devastating consequences. It would put thousands of American troops already deployed in the heart of Baghdad in even greater danger--forced to choose between trying to hold their position without the required reinforcements or, more likely, abandoning them outright. A precipitous pullout would leave a gaping security vacuum in its wake, which terrorists, insurgents, militias and Iran would rush to fill--probably resulting in a spiral of ethnic cleansing and slaughter on a scale as yet unseen in Iraq.

I appeal to my colleagues in Congress to step back and think carefully about what to do next. Instead of undermining Gen. Petraeus before he has been in Iraq for even a month, let us give him and his troops the time and support they need to succeed."

His conclusion puts the Iraq issue clearly in the proper perspective of our national security interest in a global conflict that we did not start and can not leave with impunity.

"We are at a critical moment in Iraq--at the beginning of a key battle, in the midst of a war that is irretrievably bound up in an even bigger, global struggle against the totalitarian ideology of radical Islamism. However tired, however frustrated, however angry we may feel, we must remember that our forces in Iraq carry America's cause--the cause of freedom--which we abandon at our peril."

Read the full article.