“Plenty of Time”
Joe Lieberman, discussing the President’s “surge” plan, gives a perfect example of why I can’t stand him. It’s not just that he’s a weasel who fetishizes centrism, but that he’s a politician who doesn’t understand politics.
The Senate should “step back for a moment and give you [Gen. Petraeus] a chance…. Perhaps a last chance, to succeeed in Iraq,” Lieberman said. “If God forbid, you are unable to succeed, then there will be plenty of time for the resolutions of disapproval or the other alternatives that have been contemplated.”
Plenty of time? When? In 6-9 months from now, the Democratic and Republican 2008 primary races will already be in full gear. Any action, pro- or anti-Bush, will be seen as an election-motivated ploy. Joe Lieberman, who’s run for President himself, should know as well as anybody that trying to get anything done during a Presidential election is nearly impossible. The further we wait, the more likely that any significant action will be put off, lest the Senate be accused of “playing politics” with the lives of soldiers. But that’s the whole point of the “surge” anyways. Let Bush try to wait out the clock and make Iraq somebody else’s problem (and in the process, fuel a new generation of armchair hawks who, like their Vietnam-era brethren, will insist with blind hindsight that the Iraq war was winnable). If Lieberman honestly thinks that “there will be plenty of time” to change direction in Iraq once the “surge” fails, then he’s an even bigger fool than I thought.
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What’s also crazy about Lieberman are his statements that Petraeus wrote the manual on counterinsurgency and that he therefore has made the policy and is behind the troop surge. What Lieberman ignores is that the manual this guy wrote calls for way more troops than Bush is sending. Poor General Petraeus, having a buffoon like Lieberman allegedly behind him, but what, setting him up as the fall guy?
Comment by Bob — January 24, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
The further we wait, the more likely that any significant action will be put off, lest the Senate be accused of “playing politics” with the lives of soldiers.
And that is the whole freaking point! Leiberman does understand politics, you just don’t understand his objectives. The intention is to forestall any kind of meaningful action for as long as humanly possible.
Comment by Dunc — January 25, 2007 @ 3:38 am
There’s also something perverse about having ‘plenty of time’ for a wait and see strategy when people are being killed in significant numbers on a daily basis. The people who die between now and then don’t have plenty of time.
Comment by Derek — January 25, 2007 @ 7:13 am
He is a slave to the Zionists. His views are twisted because he favors Israel and insurance companies over the needs of the United States.
Jimmy Carter could show him a thing or two.
Comment by Bogmonster — January 25, 2007 @ 4:51 pm
“Centrism” my ass!
The GOP poured a fortune into his last–”independent”–senate campaign.
Comment by Doobie — January 26, 2007 @ 8:07 pm
Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore:
They’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don’t like killing, no matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore.
— John Prine
Comment by Bagman — January 27, 2007 @ 3:42 pm