[Everyone is focusing on surveillance part of this interview, but this is important, too.]
I’d say that someone should tell Joe Lieberman that Iran is a country of Shi’ites and that al-Qaeda is a radical Sunni organization, but he knows that. He just doesn’t care one tiny little bit about being honest. At all. From Stephanopoulos:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you open to taking action in September if he [Gen. Petraeus] reports that progress is not being made?
LIEBERMAN: Depends on what he says. I mean, look, to me, George, you’ve got to view Iraq in a larger context. I had an Arab diplomat say to me two weeks ago that what is happening in the Middle
East today reminds him of what happened in Europe during the 1930s, when Nazi Germany began to make moves and the rest of Europe and the
United States did not act quick enough to stop the Second World War.He was talking about Iran. Iran is on the move in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Afghanistan. And if we pull out of Iraq, Iran and Al Qaida are the victors. So my answer is, as long as we have a
reasonable chance of success in Iraq, then I’m going to say it’s worth it for us to stay.Because if Iran and Al Qaida take over Iraq, they will destabilize the entire Middle East, and they will strike at us here at home…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me…
LIEBERMAN: … with more frequency and ferocity.
Since Lieberman is intent on lying to you, I’ll tell you the truth.
Organizations like al-Qaeda are openly hostile to BOTH Iran and the current Iraqi government. They don’t just hate the Iraqi government because they cooperate with Americans. They hate it because it is dominated by Shi’ites and is too friendly with Iran.
If Iran’s influence is the primary concern for this country and our Arab allies, then we should join al-Qaeda in opposing the current government in Baghdad. But Iran’s influence in not our primary concern. We decided, quite willingly, to give Shi’ites more power and influence when we agreed to let Iraqis have elections. If that was a mistake, then Lieberman should say so.
There is no prospect of both Iran and al-Qaeda taking over Iraq. It’s one or the other or neither, but not both. And one more point…
The Sunni Arabs of Iraq do not like al-Qaeda even though al-Qaeda is a Sunni Arab organization. Why? Well, al-Qaeda isn’t very likeable, frankly. They’re no fun. They have screwed up religious beliefs, they terrorize and murder people, and they get upset if you have a beer. Iraqis are fairly secular when it comes to people getting all up in their grill about their morals. So, once America leaves Iraq, the Iraqis will kill every al-Qaeda member they can locate. If we wan’t to destroy al-Qaeda in Iraq we should leave it to the Sunni Arabs to do it.
But Lieberman doesn’t want you to know that.
So tell me again why Reid hasn’t sent him back down to the minors?
The failure to distinguish between Sunni and Shia, and between secular and religious factions in Iraq nearly gave me fits in the run-up to the war, particularly when the more or less secular Baath apparatus of Saddam Hussein’s regime was spuriously connected to al Qaeda, which latter organization would love nothing better than to annihilate secular states like Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which provides much of the intellectual basis upon which al Qaeda was built, arose as a radical religious opposition to the secular Egyptian police state.
The end result of all this willful ignorance is that we have an intractable war in a failed state that replaced a minor police state that actually looks really, really good compared to what we replaced it with.
Lieberman only cares for Israel, and has said as much on numerous occasions. This nonsense about Iran is based on a perceived threat to Israel’s military dominance of the Middle East, which he sees as essential to that Jewish State’s survival. People can differ on that premise, but it is the one he is working from. He ought to have the honesty to come out and say that he supports sacrificing American lives and treasure for his other homeland.
Well, that’s only fair, considering how many Israelis have given their lives to defend the United States!
Oh, wait… that would be zero, wouldn’t it?
Or maybe he was talking about the United States.
Yeah, that was my thought, too….
And another thing… if I hear one more third-world country compared to Nazi Germany, I’m going to pop a vein.
For the sake of Joseph Lieberman and anyone else who never actually read about the Second World War, Germany in 1939 was the most technically advanced, massively industrialized, and heavily armed country on the face of the earth, so much so that it took the entire rest of the industrialized world five years to reduce it to rubble using tactics whose brutality and lethality have never been seen since.
In a WW2-style total war against the United States, Iran would be completely destroyed in a matter of weeks. The only thing that makes it a credible opponent is that, for a variety of reasons for which Lieberman and his Republican handlers are personally responsible, the US is in no condition to fight any more wars right now.
Sheesh.
See, there you go remembering history and stuff. That’s never going to fly with this bunch. Iran is 1930’s Germany and that’s that.
For more information on Senator Lieberman, including a history of speeches, voting records, interest group ratings, National Political Awareness Test Results and more, please visit Senator Lieberman’s Vote Smart Biography
For information on other candidates and elected officials, please visit Project Vote Smart or call our hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART.
no kidding
next question?
lTMF’sA