Sunday, November 11, 2007
How sad has Joe Lieberman become?Pretty sad. This recent speech of his, The Politics of National Security 11/09/07, shows his current public persona clearly. The Democratic base's gripe against him was not simply that he supported Bush's foreign policy and the Iraq War. It was in particular that Lieberman made a point of attacking other Democrats using White House talking points.In that speech, he said (based on the text at his Web site): Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically-elected government there, and to hand a defeat to President Bush.This is one of those pitches that in one sense is irrefutable, because it's based on fantasy (our Saviour-General Petraeus and his sacred surge are succeeding) and slams the Democrats in a thoroughly dishonest and sleazy way. If you believe this type of propaganda, there's likely nothing rational that anyone could say to change your mind. Lieberman sounds like a bitter man. And one who wants to widen the war to Iran. He talks at some length about his precious Kyl-Lieberman propaganda resolution. Without naming names so his claim could be verified, Lieberman says that Democrats opposing his resolution "invariably" agreed with the claims that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were sponsoring guerrilla attacks on Americans in Iraq. And why wouldn't they support his amendment to promote war with Iran? "It’s simple," they said. "We don’t trust Bush. He’ll use this resolution as an excuse for war against Iran."In other words, he's saying that they (Democrats) hate us (Bush supporters) for our value. This one is refutable in a more concrete sense, though it's also the same sort of sleaze. The Iranian sponsorship of anti-American attacks is questionable. But since launching a war on Iran in the current situation would put the 160,000 American soldiers, plus American diplomats and mercenaries, at much greater risk with few if any alternatives once that begins to occur, anyone who has the least sense of responsibility about supporting wars had very well better be concerned about how Cheney and Bush might "respond" to the allegations of Iranian actions that they themselves are promoting. Holy Joe continues directly to sing the familiar song of, I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me: For me, this episode reinforces how far the Democratic Party of 2007 has strayed from the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and the Clinton-Gore administration.I caught only one criticism of the Republican Party in that speech, and that was in passing and referred to the 1990s. The entire thing is a polemic against Democrats. Lieberman calls himself and "Independent Democrat". I'd say he's become very independent of the Democratic Party. Tags: democratic party, democrats, iraq war, joe lieberman, stab-in-the-back | +Save/Share | | |
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