There he goes again

June 30, 2008

It’s been a couple of weeks since a high-profile conservative argued that al Qaeda could take over Iraq, so it was disappointing (though not surprising) to see Joe Lieberman on “Face the Nation” yesterday, rehashing the old GOP talking points.

“The surge was implemented by President Bush,” Lieberman said. “It’s now working. Senator Obama unfortunately like a lot of the Democratic leadership continues to take a position that we ought to withdraw which to me is retreat. Accept defeat. Even though the new policy is working. I hope Barack Obama goes to Iraq and frankly I hope he changes his position because if we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do, for the last couple of years, today Iran and al Qaeda would be in control of Iraq.”

Now, Lieberman didn’t elaborate, and it’s hard to know precisely what he meant. Would Iran and al Qaeda control Iraq together? That seems unlikely — al Qaeda is Sunni and Iran is Shiite. Would Iranian officials have enormous influence over events in Iraq? Well, they already do.

But it’s this notion that al Qaeda could “be in control of Iraq” that continues to amaze me. Even if we put aside the key distinctions between al Qaeda and AQI — differences which Lieberman has no use for — it’s worth remembering that al Qaeda has no real allies in Iraq. The Kurds have no use for them, the Shiite majority has no use for murderous Sunni jihadists running around their country, and Sunnis have been rising up against AQI since before the “surge” even began. If we left, al Qaeda could (or would) “control” Iraq? Not in this reality.

Either Lieberman doesn’t realize this, or he does know and doesn’t care. The goal is to put a simple-but-ridiculous idea in people’s minds: Obama policy = al Qaeda success. Lieberman has it backwards, of course, but he won’t let facts get in the way of a good attack.

As long as we’re on the subject, there was one other noteworthy comment in Lieberman’s CBS interview.

Joe Lieberman, appearing on Face the Nation today, made the case for McCain with a blunt reminder.

“Our enemies will test the new president early,” said Lieberman. “Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration.”

That is some statement — and one that I doubt Lieberman just hatched over coffee in the Green Room.

I think that’s a safe bet. As Ezra explained: “Remember, too, that’s it’s been a bit less than a week since McCain’s senior adviser Charlie Black was roundly denounced for saying a terrorist attack would be an unalloyed boon to the McCain campaign. But look, this is pretty clearly the strategy. If this election is about terror, McCain might win. If it’s about the economy, he definitely loses. So if a few surrogates have to take their lumps for all but promising a deadly terrorist attack if Obama wins, so be it. Americans don’t vote the right way unless they’re scared.”

The threat of a new attack in the first year of a new administration should be yet another reason not to vote for McCain. Do we really want a confused war monger leading the response, while surrounded by lobbyist advisors?

  • Irak has become less violent because of 4 things all of which are reversible:

    The Flip – Sunni Tribes switching their alliance away from AQI alliance (and getting paid to do so)

    The Truce – Al Sadr’s shia cease fire against US troops and presumably other competing Iraqi factions.

    The Cleansing – The sectarian forced segration of neighborhoods in Baghdad and elsewhere.

    The Surge – The switch to counter insurgency tactics along with additional troops.

    When Zell Lieberman says the surge is working, he really means American Troops are not subject to the same number of daily attack as they were a year ago. The surge may be partly responsible for this. But everything else in Iraq is still screwed up.

    So with Zell, if there is violence, this is a reason why we can’t leave. And if violence goes down then we can stay for 100 years. What you won’t get from Zell is any straight talk about what Irak is and why we supposedly can’t leave.

  • Put Lieberman in a clown suit and send him to Sea World—he’d be perfect as the human fall-guy in “Fools With Tools.” They could change Clyde’s and Seymour’s names to “Osama” and “Hussein.”

    (Clyde and Seymour are the sea lions in the performance, by the way—and their barks are more intellectual than Darth Joe’s witless whine….)

  • Lieberman’s statement actually has me rattled a bit more than I would have thought. I mean, I know intellectually that the “best” time for a terrorist attack on the US is when there’s a “changing of the guard” going on – which is why the two WTC attacks happened when they did. There’s a bit of unfocused chaos going on as administrations change over and terrorists can exploit that to their advantage.

    Normally I wouldn’t be too worried about this – after being burned TWICE by this I’d figure that the career bureaucrats in Justice, the CIA, the NSA and the FBI would be on high alert for problems over the next year+. Except that the career folks in these areas have been replaced with political hacks of the worst sort who may be too busy covering their own asses for the shennanigans they’ve been a part of for the last almost-a-decade and/or actively working to hamstring the incoming administration to make them look bad.

    This has the makings to be really, really bad.

  • wait: the surge is “now” working? i thought the official right-wing comment was that the surge “worked.” it’s only “now” working?

  • And, thanks to the amazing spineless man, Harry Reid, and his witless accomplices on the steering committee, Joe Lieberman, still holds his position within the democratic caucus and his chair on the Homeland Security Committee. Remind me, what’s the virtue of compromising? Aren’t you supposed to get something out of the deal?

  • Hmmmm, if we did what Obamba wanted to do, ie: not attack Iraq in the first place, Iran and Al Queda would be in charge? Is that what the Lieb is really saying?

  • I think this can be used against the GOP effectively in a series of ads. The adds can begin with the Trade Center’s being bombed. Then fade in to the briefing Bush ignored on “Al Qaeda determined to attack the U.S” and a shot of Bush staring with a blank look on his face. Then To the various reports that say how al Qaeda has regrouped under the six year GOP contolled congress. You know the ones, showing terrorists kicking and shooting. Then blurr into a photo of Addington and Yoo writing the Torture memos and then pictures of AbuGraub. Then have the voice over ask: If we are attacked when Obama wins, whose fault do YOU think it would be?”

    Then fade to a mushroom cloud and the voice over saying. Bush policies, supported by and surly to be followed by McCain has INCREASED our chances of this smoking gun…”Time for real change? We think so…”

  • And they let him get away with saying this crap unchallenged. Lieberman is obnoxious. He and Lindsay Graham should marry.

  • btw…Howard Dean said Al Qaeda would take over Iraq if we withdrew too quickly in an interview with Rachael Maddow on Air America. What puts these thoughts in their tiny little heads. All 80 al qaeda members would take over a country of millions…oh wait…how many neocons are there in Bush administration?

  • Lieberman thinks he his being a friend to Israel, but he is not. Lieberman puts the interests of Israel above the interests of America.

  • Yes, Joe Leiberman is a clown, and he basically parodies himself at this point. But when do we start to hold CBS accountable for continuing to trot out the most discredited and mendacious neocons to pollute the airwaves? Its like they have a certain BS quota they need to meet each week, and nothing produces as much BS as a neocon! C’mon CBS. Haven’t these guys gotten enough wrong for long enough that we can start to showcase some other viewpoints, even if they are more complicated?

  • Will, @16,

    I watch TV about 2 hrs a year on average and, eve if I did watch more, it wouldn’t be the talking heads programs. But, reading y’all’s descriptions of those, I wonder if there might not be some redeeming value to them. As laxatives or emetics, maybe?

  • One of the clear things we all see is how easy it is read Lieberman, and what a cruel policy he stands for. Especially that statement “Al Qaeda “Will test our new president. Just as the Republican’s have to hold the door open as the Democrats move in the pests of terrorism will have a chance to fly in like the pests they are and known by the current administration.

    The more Lieberman talks about the transition to a Democratic White House the more he will reveal those so called unintentional consequences of policy that are placed in motion and create compelling Al Qaeda actions. For me if there was any time in my understanding of history Lieberman exhibits with publically poisoned statements that show the close complicity in years of military actions that benefited the Arab ruling family especially the Bin Laden’s. More and more for me it does not seem to be an advantage for the Jews.

    For me and it is only my opinion many might reject, Bush and Company have been and are complicit in manipulation of not only intelligence of the war in Iraq but a hard policy that is more than amiable towards the comfort and aid to the advantage of the Arab ruling class that has use American resources. How? High oil barrel prices. All which could very well combine in an oil effort that is not an advantage for America but an advantage for an Iraqi Iranian Russian Chinese co-operative. Barrowing money for a war or creating conversations in anti ballistics in Europe or growing Chinese Wally Mart distribution centers in America. All compromising horrible uncertainty with a resilience that looks down and not up.

    Now all this gives me reasons Impeachment should have not been taken off the table. If Bush and Company were not in power likely a whole different economic play would be taking place. Face it Bush and Company control the Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF, Treasury all the while scaring the public or passing out money in what I call instant title funding for the rich billions of silent and gifts to Wall Street screw ups while stiffing the electorate with highly debated difficult returns or stimulus checks to the electorate. I still have not got mine.

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