Lieberman vs. Murtha, Pelosi & Reid
Monday, February 26th, 2007Joe Lieberman has written an op-ed in today’s OpinionJournal that excoriates the Democrats for their defeatist attitudes and policies. Here’s a key section from Sen. Lieberman’s op-ed:
Will we allow our actions to be driven by the changing conditions on the ground in Iraq, or by the unchanging political and ideological positions long ago staked out in Washington? What ultimately matters more to us: the real fight over there, or the political fight over here?
If we stopped the legislative maneuvering and looked to Baghdad, we would see what the new security strategy actually entails and how dramatically it differs from previous efforts. For the first time in the Iraqi capital, the focus of the U.S. military is not just training indigenous forces or chasing down insurgents, but ensuring basic security, meaning an end, at last, to the large-scale sectarian slaughter and ethnic cleansing that has paralyzed Iraq for the past year.
President Bush’s plan might not succeed but he’s at least trying to achieve victory. That’s a far cry from the Democrats’ position. Democrats should be chastised for opposing victory and for owning the defeatism market. It’s never been, nor should it ever be, acceptable for a major political party to attempt so strongly to ‘achieve’ defeat. (more…)