Why does THIS WEEK not have at least some semblance of balance from its guests today? Chertoff and Lieberman were the only people on except the panel and Stephanopoulos does not hold anything Lieberman says up to scrutiny. We're all Nazi appeasers in Lieberman's world. He uses the UK plot to push for more surveillance and the Surge is working to him just fine even though it's not to US commanders. And when September comes, it all depends on what Patraeus says and he still won't really care. It's Iraq for ever!
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We had some server issues this morning, but Adam sent over an email with a good list...
Lieberman: "On the facts, reduced violence in Baghdad and incredibly reduced violence in Anbar province to the west, which Al Qaeda in Iraq was in control of a few months ago. The surge is working. You might say that in Iraq, we have the enemy on the run. But for some reason in Washington, a lot of politicians are on the run to order a retreat by our troops even as they are beginning to succeed."
The Surge is not working, Joe...
Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.
Let's go to Anbar:
THE US military said it had uncovered 35 to 40 bodies in a mass grave south of Falluja, in Iraq's Sunni dominated Anbar province. A Falluja hospital source said 35 bodies had been retrieved and were being finger-printed to establish their identity. The military said the killings were relatively recent and the bodies had been bound and bore gunshot wounds.
He also wants more scrutiny in America and as Faiz says:
Lieberman claimed, “We’re at a partisan gridlock over the question of whether the American government can listen into conversations or follow email trails of non-American citizens.” This is false; the NSA spying program covered the surveillance of American citizens. The “gridlock” exists over whether the administration will cooperate with Congress by explaining why it feels current law is inadequate and why President Bush decided to ignore the law in authorizing a spying program that almost led to mass resignations at the Department of Justice...read on
And then there's his Nazi/Iran comparisons:
transcript via ABC...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you open to taking action in September if he
reports that progress is not being made?
LIEBERMAN: Depends on what he says. I mean, look, to me,
George, you've got to view Iraq in a larger context. I had an Arab
diplomat say to me two weeks ago that what is happening in the Middle
East today reminds him of what happened in Europe during the 1930s,
when Nazi Germany began to make moves and the rest of Europe and the
United States did not act quick enough to stop the Second World War. He was talking about Iran. Iran is on the move in Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine and Afghanistan. And if we pull out of Iraq, Iran and Al
Qaida are the victors. So my answer is, as long as we have a
reasonable chance of success in Iraq, then I'm going to say it's worth
it for us to stay.
Because if Iran and Al Qaida take over Iraq, they will
destabilize the entire Middle East, and they will strike at us here at
home...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you open to taking action in September if he
reports that progress is not being made?
LIEBERMAN: Depends on what he says. I mean, look, to me,
George, you've got to view Iraq in a larger context. I had an Arab
diplomat say to me two weeks ago that what is happening in the Middle
East today reminds him of what happened in Europe during the 1930s,
when Nazi Germany began to make moves and the rest of Europe and the
United States did not act quick enough to stop the Second World War.
He was talking about Iran. Iran is on the move in Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine and Afghanistan. And if we pull out of Iraq, Iran and Al
Qaida are the victors. So my answer is, as long as we have a
reasonable chance of success in Iraq, then I'm going to say it's worth
it for us to stay.
Because if Iran and Al Qaida take over Iraq, they will
destabilize the entire Middle East, and they will strike at us here at