Our Troops Must Stay (Joe Lieberman The New Zell Miller Alert)

Opinionjournal.com ^ | 11/29/05 | Joe Lieberman

[goldstategop]

cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause, not by political debates." Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.

Mr. Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut.

[goldstategop]

The way the Democrats are evolving though... they're leaving behind people who still think of themselves as liberal but are patriots. Its their loss and America's gain.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[nopardons]

Very true.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

All I can say is that even though Lieberman has differing principles and opinions from conservatives, he at the very least supports the soldiers of his own country ATM. That in itself is respectable enough.

(yearns for the days when Democrats were respectable people with different opinions) Anyone remember John Kennedy's acceptance speech in 1961?

[dk/coro]

LOL. Wish I could agree with you. Lieberman's track record signals otherwise...right across the board!

BTW, I submit that you have your hands full in Kalifornia -- just keeping Arnie from giving away the farm.

What a huge disappointment this guy has been. Glad I hauled a** and left Coronado to the illegals who walk up the Silver Strand at will.

Good luck, sport-fan. And give Joe a hug for Arnie when next you see him. Two birds of a feather. *S*

[West Coast Conservative]

How do you explain Boxer and Feingold? Two very liberal anti-war JEWS.

[Christian4Bush]

remember, Zell gave the keynote address at the 1992 convention as well. The 1992 Democrat convention.

Yes, he did. If I recall, the first time Zell ever supported a Republican for President was our own George W. Bush in 2004. So yes, he supported Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, and Gore. But as he mentions in his first book, "A National Party No More", the party "left" him (pun intended by me), not the other way around.

He used to be pro-abortion, then had a change of heart. As far as I know, Joe Lieberman still is. And despite his support for the war, and to an extent for the President as Commander in Chief, Lieberman still supported John Kerry for President. Zell Miller did not. He stood up for a REAL leader, despite his faults (which have been well documented by some here at FR).

I still recall with great pride his speech during the RNC last year, at ironically the same venue where he keynoted for Clinton in 1992...the answer to the question 'which person can keep his family safe' brought him back, for "family is more important than my party", talked about how he could admire someone who lived the line of Amazing Grace, "was blind but now I see", and that as a Democrat, he was proud to stand in support of a Republican President who had in the time of need stood up for his country.

With all due respect, this is not, and may never be, Joe Lieberman.

[MikeHu]

The press has marginalized the Democrats by not resorting to their more thoughtful and cooler heads but incites the most inflammatory and defamatory statements by the most disreputable types -- including celebrities looking for some cheap publicity. In that way, they've gutted the true leadership of the Democrats and replaced them with themselves as chief spokespersons.

So they use people like Cindy Sheehan, and once they are of no use to them -- they abandon them with their delusions of grandeur to walk the streets alone. There's always the next sucker looking for a free pass to say what the press wants them to say.

It's too bad Lieberman and Miller can't take back their party from the media they've grown too dependent on to do their hard but necessary work for them. They're all but incapable of articulating any coherence anymore -- and if they do, the press won't quote them.

[MikeHu]

That's why the conservative/right/Republican blogs and discussions are so much more advanced. The mainstream media is undercutting and undermining the liberal/left/Democrats by co-opting and demanding to be their leaders -- while making the Republicans stronger by not doing them similar favors.

If one takes away the mainstream media, the real Democrats have forgotten how to speak for themselves -- because the mainstream media has taken over that function for them. But it cripples them in a world in which everyone can speak for themselves.

[Political Junkie Too]

Lieberman talks a good talk, but unfortunately, he doesn't back it up with votes. When the party comes knocking, Lieberman will always vote with them.

-PJ

[fish hawk]

You are right. Joe has swayed like a reed in the wind in the past. He is a dedicated liberal Democrat all the way. He just seems to be on the right once in awhile because all of his cohorts are so far to the radical left it makes him seem so.

[DB]

Are those the same "principles" he had when he did a 180 on abortion so he could run as Gore's Veep?

My guess is he saw that all the back stabbing he and his party have been doing to the President over Iraq was starting to cause actual harm to both America and our cause in Iraq. That it gave him a brief moment of pause that all those cheap political points weren't so cheap after all. That there were real consequences... And that it scared him a little with what might actually happen as a result.

[dk/coro]

I understand your points...and another factor that places Lieberman, in his current position (relative to the lefties in his party), has his deep religious convictions (Orthodox Jew) and his understanding of the critical Israeli/Islamic factor.

To get a clear understanding of the degree of that virulent hatred manifested by the Islamists toward Joe's people, just read any one of the keynote speeches offered at the commencement of the regular Islamic OIC conferences. Undambelievable!

After reading one of those diatribes, were I Joe, I would never get out of the W's trackbed in Crawford! Ever! **S**

[A'elian' nation]

"When the going gets really rough, IMO, Lieberman will cut and run -- just like the rest of the liberal gaggle."

You nailed it. Lieberman may be the best the Dems have (and that's not saying much), but anyone who laughs and cheers as military votes are tossed in the crapper as Lieberman did in the 2000 race will NEVER get my respect or my vote.
I would love to tell him that to his face if he ever puts his hand out again asking for a vote.

[de Buillion]

" ----After his actions in trying to disenfranchise military absentee voters during the 2000 election fiasco in Florida, I respectfully disagree. I will not forget those days.----"

AMEN!

[muir_redwoods]

"Joe Lieberman's article in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal comes as a happy surprise. Looks like he's the new Democratic Zell Miller. I haven't agreed with him on much in the past but he my full respect. Thanks for backing the War, the Iraqi people and our troops, Senator."

He's whole lot better than Schumer but I could say the same thing about a sizeable number of convicted felons. Let's not let this love affair with Lieberman get too intense. In truth, he is no Zell Miller.

[Barney59]

Many thanks G58!

[devolve]

CT Yankee bump!

[mewzilla]

Tried to steal any military votes lately, Joe?

[Tolik]

Joe Lieberman:

...It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority...

...In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, eight million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. Most encouraging has been the behavior of the Sunni community, which, when disappointed by the proposed constitution, registered to vote and went to the polls instead of taking up arms and going to the streets. Last week, I was thrilled to see a vigorous political campaign, and a large number of independent television stations and newspapers covering it.

None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.

The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, 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. 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.

The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them...

...I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause, not by political debates."

Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.

Nailed It!

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[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Outstanding! [although Lieberman is no Zel Miller.]