Inside Joe Lieberman

READ MORE: Rep. John Murtha, Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, Iraq, 2006, Fox News, Karl Rove

You have to hand it to Karl Rove. Before every election he manages to convince a prominent Democrat to abandon his Party and support President Bush. In 2004 the turncoat was Georgia Senator Zell Miller. In 2006 it’s Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

The overwhelming majority of Congressional Democrats feel that the occupation of Iraq is an unmitigated disaster and that we must have a plan for withdrawal.

Not Lieberman. November 30th George Bush made a major speech and unveiled his “Strategy for Victory in Iraq.” The day before, the “Wall Street Journal” carried an Op-Ed by the Connecticut Senator, “Our Troops Must Stay.”
(http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=249384) Point by point Lieberman backed the President.

Many Americans doubt that we are making headway in Iraq. Not Lieberman. “I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress… the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation … unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.” Everywhere the Senator looked he saw progress. In the Kurdish north he saw no signs that they were setting up an independent state or conducting ethnic cleansing. In the Shiite South he heard no rumors of death squads killing Sunnis or made notice of the ominous march towards Islamic theocracy. Even in the Sunni triangle things seemed peachy to Joe. He saw new satellite dishes and cell phones. Ignored improvised explosive devices and torture chambers.

Lieberman accepted the Bush framing of the war. “10,000 terrorists who are… instigating a civil war that will produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making… If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again.” He underestimated the size of the insurgency. Recent estimates start at 30,000 and range as high as 200,000. His assessment of the “progress” of the occupation flies in the face of reliable reports that there has been a savage upsurge in daily attacks.

The 2000 Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate lashed out at his Party. “I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago… than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.” He saw indications that the Iraqi military was gaining self-sufficiency and predicted, “If that happens, American military forces could be able to begin to drawdown in numbers proportional to the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006.” He overestimated the readiness of the Iraqi army. On September 29th, the top ground commander in Iraq, General George Casey, told Congress “only one Iraqi battalion can operate independently of U.S. forces,” down from the three battalions that had been previously estimated.

The Connecticut Senator’s view of Iraqi sentiment was remarkably upbeat. “Polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today.” He used this finding to make his most emphatic point. “What a colossal mistake it would be for America’s bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will, and in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.” Lieberman cited a survey that only he and the Administration have seen. (His office was unable to provide a source.) Widely available polls have found Iraqi sentiment to be profoundly negative. Congressman John Murtha cited a recent survey that found, “over 80 percent of Iraqis are strongly oppose to the presence of coalition troops, and about 45 percent of the Iraqi population believe attacks against American troops are justified.”

Most observers believe that the dark lord, Karl Rove, bought Zell Miller – who got a lucrative book deal and became a Fox News “talking head.” Now there are rumors that he swayed Lieberman by promising that he would replace Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

However, there may be a simpler explanation. Lieberman is one of eleven Jewish senators. He is the most observant Jew in this group, and the only one to attend an Orthodox synagogue. In his 17 years in the Senate, the Connecticut Senator has been the leading advocate of aid for Israel. In 1991, he was the lead co-sponsor of the Gulf War resolution, and over the years, the Senate's leading voice for removing Saddam from power. In 1998, he co-sponsored the Iraqi Liberation Act, which made a change of regime in Baghdad official United States policy. Lieberman believes that the US presence is Iraq strengthens Israel. For these reasons he’s willing to overlook serious problems with the occupation.

Despite Joe Lieberman’s strong feelings, the protection of the US and the defense of Israel are not synonymous. A disastrous Iraqi occupation may aid Israel, but it is not helping America win the overall war on terror.

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