Saturday, April 21, 2007

Joe Lieberman Rebuts Harry Reid

Thank God for Joe Lieberman. He took Harry Reid to task for giving comfort to our enemies.

"This week witnessed horrific terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists in Iraq, killing hundreds of innocent civilians and leading Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to declare that the war is 'lost.'

With all due respect, I strongly disagree. Senator Reid's statement is not based on military facts on the ground in Iraq and does not advance our cause there.

Al Qaeda's strategy for victory in Iraq is clear. They are trying to murder as many innocent civilians as possible in an effort to reignite sectarian fighting and drive us to retreat from Iraq.

The question now before us is whether we respond to these terrorist attacks by running away as Al Qaeda hopes - abandoning the future of Iraq, the Middle East, and ultimately our own security to the very same people responsible for this week's atrocities - or whether we stand united to fight them.

This is exactly the wrong time to conclude that we have lost the war in Iraq, or that our new strategy has failed. Instead, we should provide General Petraeus and his troops with the time and the resources to succeed. We should not surrender in the face of barbarism."

I've stated before that the Democrats are invested in our defeat in Iraq. They made that clear just after the November elections, although they weren't willing to run on that platform for the mid-terms (they knew most people do not want us to lose). Trial balloon after trial balloon has been sent up, trying to find the most popular way of cutting and running, all to no avail.

Shouldn't the Democrats give up giving up and instead try working with the President and General Petraeus to help us win in Iraq? That would be a novel approach.

UPDATE: Betsy has an excellent post explaining how Reid's words have been embraced by the Middle East media, a not unpredictable outcome. Now Reid denies he's rooting against us, but that's not what he and Senator Schumer were saying a week ago, when they were bragging that opposition to the war was helping the Democratic Party politically.

Can we question their patriotism yet?