A lonely voice of reason in Congress’ increasingly self-serving ballyhoo over Iraq.
Calling for a truce in the Washington political war, Lieberman crafts an appeal that is grounded in common sense, raised by its heartfelt sincerity and compelling for its grave understanding of where the war now stands.
The Senate and House are locked in parliamentary trench warfare, even as the new battle for Baghdad is being waged. “What ultimately matters most to us?” Lieberman asks. “The real fight over there, or the political fight over here?”
Indeed, those who cared to peep over the parapet would see that attaching any form of withdrawal timetable at this time can only undermine the Baghdad effort. Just as the Bush administration “best-cased” what would happen after Saddam was overthrown, war opponents are now “best-casing” the consequences of a pullout for self-serving purposes.
Lieberman’s Churchillian end call should echo in the consciences of every congressman: “We are at a critical moment in Iraq — at the beginning of a key battle, in the midst of a war that is irretrievably bound up in an even bigger global struggle against the totalitarian idealogy of radical Islamism.
“However tired, however frustrated, however angry we may feel, we must remember that our forces in Iraq carry America’s cause — the cause of freedom — which we abandon at our peril.”
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