Joe Lieberman Says We Should Stay In Iraq

Of course, this kind of talk won't get near as much hype compared to when a Democrat comes out and says that the troops should come home.

Fresh from his fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months, Sen. Joe Lieberman insists the U.S. must stay in the embattled nation and not abandon "27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists."

"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nationhood – unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn," the Connecticut Democrat writes in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Pointing to economic and political progress he witnessed while in Iraq, Lieberman said:
"People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

"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-Qaida foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern ...

In 2000, the Al Gore/Joe Lieberman presidential ticket was seen as a vehicle of positive change within the Democratic party. A ticket that would turn the page on the worsening economy and the Monica Lewinsky/Denise Rich scandals that came to mark Bill Clinton's second term. But then Gore lost to Bush and quizzocaily decided not to run again in 2004 (tho' the feeling here is that Gore would've had a better shot of defeating George W. Bush in 2004 then John Kerry).

As for Lieberman, tho' he was highly praised for his centrist views in 2000 (views that many back in '00 thought would propel Gore to the presidency), he has since been castigated by leftist Democrats for not taking on hardline anti-Republican stances including the line they're running with now about bringing our troops home.

Funny how soon things change.