The Workday Liberal

Joe Lieberman (? CT) was interviewed in right wing radio world by Bill Bennet. Lieberman used the toxic ambiance of the Bennet program to launch an attack on Senator Harry Reid (D NV)

Lieberman is well known for his insane ramblings about Iraq and the middle east so I don't think it's very surprising that he is taking on opponents of the quagmire. However, in slamming Reid around, Lieberman seems to declare that the war is not lost, even as he declares that it is lost:

You know, Harry Reid said a while ago that the war in Iraq is lost. It's wrong. It's not lost. In fact, I would say we're beginning to win it. We've turned the tide with the new strategy. And in fact, I cannot conceive of a circumstance in which American forces would lose the war in Iraq, on the ground in Iraq. If we lose it, it's gonna be lost here at home, in a different kind of war for public opinion and political support."

Based upon that criteria, the war has been lost. When Lieberman says "If we lose it, it's going to be lost here at home" he is conceding defeat by any sane reading of the situation. Public support for the war is in the cellar, and the wide majority is calling for withdrawal within a year.

Frankly Lieberman going to the "we're beginning to win it" rhetoric is just laughable. How many times has Lieberman, not the President or other right wing blow hards but Lieberman in particular, waxed eloquent about turning the corner, signs of victory, the improving situation and so on and on and on. Let us take an incomplete trip down memory lane, courtesy of Joe-we're beginning to win-Lieberman:

11/29/05 I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

Progress is visible and practical.

Yet amazingly, the outlook in Iraq improved in a marked fashion immediately after this quote, because three weeks later Lieberman noted an improvement... in the past two weeks!

12/17/05 "The last two weeks have been critically important and I believe may be seen as a turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism,"

Here is Mr. Lieberman in a debate with Ned Lamont during the Democratic primary for his Connecticut Senate seat. Which primary I remind you Lieberman lost, due in large part to his nonsensical blather on Iraq.

07/07/06 "The situation in Iraq is a lot better, different than it was a year ago. The Iraqis held three elections. They formed a unity government. They are on the way to building a free and independent Iraq. Their military -- two-thirds of their military is now ready, on their own, to lead the fight with some logistical backing from the U.S. or stand up on their own totally. That's progress."

One is left with the conclusion that Lieberman habitually thinks we are winning in Iraq, no matter how obvious it may be to the rest of the world that he and the rest of the Bush bots are dead wrong. Now Lieberman himself has given us a yardstick which by any measure serves to demonstrate the war is lost. The yardstick of public opinion.

Unfortunately we must conclude that Lieberman actually does not believe his own rhetoric. But in telling us that a war fought by this nation must have public support or be doomed to fail, Lieberman actually has a point. He just needs to actually recognize his own point.