Barney's Best Friend, Joe

So, as usual, I'm a bit behind on things. That's why I was only today reading the Tuesday, November 29 op-ed by Joe Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal, Our Troops Must Stay: America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.

Lieberman's words - lies? delusions? desperate panderings to the Republicans? - have left me sputtering and speechless.

Nevertheless I will attempt to comment.

"Progress is visible and practical, " writes Lieberman. How exactly does he measure this? "There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. "

I wonder, did he count the cell phones? Is that how he got his scientific figure "millions"? No matter, let's move on.

"In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the Arab world. He is right. "

Hmmm, how exactly does one maintain a democracy while being under foreign occupation? Just wondering.

"The administration's recent use of the banner 'clear, hold and build' accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week."

Again, I'm woefully behind on the administration's Orwellian catchphrases and questionable campaign names. (My recent favorite: Operation Steel Curtain. Are the propaganda folks really that desperate that they have to bring out the Curtain again?) When I first read that, I thought Joe was talking about clear-cutting forests or something.

"If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come. "

Finally, some honesty. Though if The Subliminal Man from SNL were reporting here, he would add "for the oil."

"After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. "

I just don't have anything witty to say to that. Just blatant administration cocksucking.

Lieberman ends his piece with the Marines' motto Semper Fi. Nice words from a man who did not serve in the military; he received an educational deferment while in school, then a family deferment (as a father) upon his law school graduation in 1967.

The only way to end this piece is with a photo from Joe’s own website. A picture is worth a thousand words.