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May 19, 2013
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Robert Scheer: Warring Over the Heart of the PartyPosted on Aug 22, 2006
Make no mistake about it: The fight within the Democratic Party over the Iraq war is as important as it is real. This is no sideshow between seasoned Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and upstart challenger Ned Lamont, between pros and bloggers, or lefties and conservatives within the party. No, this battle transcends those labels and cuts to the obligation of politicians to be honest with the public. Indeed, a seasoned conservative Democratic politician should recognize the war in Iraq for the unmitigated disaster it is and seek to properly place responsibility for it on the incumbent Republican president. It is one thing for Democrats like Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to admit that they bought into the Bush administration’s lies about Saddam Hussein’s alleged nuke program and partnership with Al Qaeda and to now seek to make amends by working to bring the troops home. It is quite another, as Lieberman has, to continue to defend as wise this patently absurd betrayal of the public interest. And it moves from dumb to evil to claim that those like Lamont who dare tell the truth are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. “If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do—get out by a date certain—it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again,” Lieberman said after his defeat in the Connecticut primary earlier this month, indicting not only his opponent but all those who voted for him. In fact, Lieberman, along with the president and vice president, has become a full-blown McCarthyite smear artist, painting his political opponents with the tar brush of treason in an alleged apocalyptic battle for civilization. Advertisement Such hyperbole is not only historically ridiculous—more evil than Adolf Hitler and his extermination camps? ... more dangerous than the Soviets and their thousands of nukes?—it is a cynical attack on the free debate that is supposed to inform our nation’s leaders. The Lieberman-Cheney axis insists that not only are those who disagree with them traitorous or, at best, naive, but also that any and all military action conducted in the name of fighting terrorists is, by definition, good. But what if the opposite were true? That, as Lamont and other critics of this quagmire argue, our clumsy presence in Iraq has increased the danger of Al Qaeda-style terrorism? After all, fundamentalist Al Qaeda did not have a base in Hussein’s secularized Iraq and has flourished there only since the United States brought chaos and American targets, many of them still teenagers, to Baghdad’s bloody streets. Again, this is not really a “left” or “right” position. It is even conceded by the two leading national security experts associated with Lieberman and the centrist Democratic Leadership Council he helped found. “The war in Iraq has proved to be a disaster for the struggle against Osama bin Laden,” Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack said in last Sunday’s Washington Post. “Fighters there are receiving training, building networks and becoming further radicalized—and the U.S. occupation is proving a dream recruiting tool for young Muslims worldwide.” This is quite an admission coming from two Democratic hawks who vociferously supported the war: Pollack wrote the influential “Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq.” Back in April 2003, the two argued in the DLC’s magazine that democratizing Iraq would be made easier by the fact that “Iraq had perhaps the best educated, most secular, and most progressive population of all the Arab states” prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. So are they chastened by the mayhem? No, they want us to dig ourselves a deeper hole. “It probably would require 450,000 troops to quash an all-out civil war there,” they say now. “Such an effort would require a commitment of enormous military and economic resources, far in excess of what the United States has already put forth.” And once we bankrupt ourselves to make Iraq a giant military prison camp, what will we do then? Find a new Hussein to take over Iraq? As Lamont wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week, staying the course when the car is headed off the cliff is hardly a realistic position. E-mail Robert Scheer at rscheer@truthdig.com.
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By Charles Newlin, August 23, 2006 at 9:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
What makes you think electing Democrats will make such a large difference? Evidence, please.
Remember, most, or enough, of them voted for Bush’s worst initiatives - including, and especially, the Iraq War. Belated claims that “He lied to me” don’t cut it, especially when we know that Scott Ritter went to John Kerry BEFORE the vote and the hearings, told him there were no WMD’s (no one has been more thoroughly vindicated than Ritter), and asked to testify. Kerry refused to put him before the committee - coverup, anyone? - and voted for the war anyway. And that’s TYPICAL. Hillary Clinton still supports the war, and is going to WIN her primary.
To the same point: why would you call the DLC “centrist”? They bear no resemblance to the real center in this country, which, according to the polls, is very liberal. They are right-wing; they are also the auctioneers who sold the Democratic party to the Republicans. Somebody please save us from “honest politicians.”
The correct term is “corporatist.”
Floyd Anderson already gave you the website for a genuine progressive party, that hasn’t put itself up for auction. We need your help.
Report thisBy ed_tru_lib, August 23, 2006 at 9:11 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Well said again, Mr Sheer. The key phrase, and point, being of course, that TRUE democrats have to unite, in which case, as they have always done, most recently in the Conn primary, they WILL WIN.
Report thisBut of course here come the John C’s of #19653 above, here and on other blogs, who have to bring their eternally devisive anti-Israel’s right to exist, even if only to let itself be killed by the terrorist murderers that its “neighbors” support and enable. They are, and will always be, at best blindly naderite nuts, at worst hitlerian/bid ladenian evil. To hell with them. Time to unite behind the true liberal democrats, including those who may be a little late coming to the FDR/JFK/MLKJr/RFK table, at least on Iraq, and end the republican reign of terror on America and the world, that the nader traitors of 2000 (a few of them re-born in the curennt New York Democratic primary as the Tasini taliban) gave us. Gore, Hillary, Dean, Lamont, Kerry et al, hardly exemplify the best of the great, AND VICTORIOUS Democratic tradition, but they are the best we have now, and light-years from Leiberman, Cheney, and (thank God) Nader. Ignore the clowns of the extreme left, whether blindly stupid or mindlessly evil, as you would those of the ruling nutcase/evil right. Unite behind the Democrats leadership, however belated on a few issues this time, and we WILL WIN.
Last note to all the John C.s out there-sure some of you are sincere in your stupidity or anti-semitism, but how many of you are REPUBLICAN moles, or at least trolls?
By Jon B, August 23, 2006 at 8:51 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Those for war politicians don’t have the character and decency to admit their monumental mistakes made. Worse, these lot have no remorse for all the casualties,Abu Ghraid and all the human rights violations, pain and suffering which they have caused.
Bastards.
Report thisBy jeff gershoff, August 23, 2006 at 7:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
This column is like a sledge hammer driving down a nail of clarity into the murky crap spewed by this administration and their hangers on. The importance of the Democrats choosing the correct candidate for ‘08, and then the rest of us rolling up our sleeves and making sure of a landslide victory could be the single most important actions of our lives. Even if it turns out to be too late, and Bush’s madness and Lieberman’s sycophantic moronocy drag us all down the road to an unecessary armageddon, we’ve got to go down standing up for what is right. There is not other option.
Report thisBy John Earl, August 23, 2006 at 7:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
My mind keeps going over to the fact that airport terminal employees aren’t subjected to the same rigors that passengers are. After a preliminary employment screening they are virtually unimpeded in their activities around airports. While businessmen go shoeless and mothers taste their own extracted breastmilk an airport employee could easily plant a bomb in a suitcase. ( God forbid that they get hold of a bunch of poisonous snakes! )
So it seems that the whole rigamarole of passenger screening is just window dressing. Until more effective screening devices are employed at airports and employees face the same treatment as passengers how could it be deemed otherwise? ( When the post-9/11 screening routine first came into effect I spoke to a pilot about it. He told me it was a joke. )
So this whole new crisis about a conspiracy to carry liquid explosives onto planes and its implications in a Senatorial primary race is just another example of how little John Q Public’s intelligence is held in esteem by the political spinmeisters of the right.
Will the ongoing tragedy in Iraq be sustained by more of this kind of nonsense? Or will we do the sensible thing and “cut and run”? Do Democratic leaders also share the opinion that their constituents are a bunch of dummies or will they lay the facts out for all to see?
Report thisBy Floyd Anderson, August 23, 2006 at 6:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Expecting the Corporate/DLC/AIPAC owned and controlled Democrats to tell the truth to the public is pretty much like waiting for hell to freeze over. Voters who are fed up with the Democrats and their long record of lying to the public can vote for Green Party candidates in most states this year. To find out more go to: http://www.greencommons.org.
Report thisBy Gloria, August 23, 2006 at 6:17 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Vote Schmote. I always do. To what end? To watch how my precious vote was trashed at a documentary film that cost me $9.75 unless I make it to the matinee showing.
Report thisAnd yes I am vote democratic. There is no one out there running on the Land Value Tax ticket.
No matter who the democratic candidate is I would love to see this when the religious/morals/values question is asked at the debate. I would love to see the Democratic candidate say, “My family & I have a religion we practice. I am not speaking about it here at the predidential candidates’ debate. This debate is about the government of the United States of America. This debate is about the government made of, for, & by US citizens. This debate is not about our family’s religion. Thank you.”
By John C, August 23, 2006 at 6:04 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Lieberman is a mouthpiece for Israel - period! He needs to be investigated as a possible mole in our political system.
Report thisBy Janis of Sierra Madre, August 23, 2006 at 4:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Joe Lieberman is just another case of an old man in denial. His time has past yet he clings to the spotlight. His claim of virtuous loyalty to America over his former political party is desparate doublespeak. Like so many former politicians before him, his “cause” is to just stay in the Washington political game so he doesn’t have to suffer the crash of his Goodyear blimp-size ego. He really should move on and accept his new life and his new job. He’s currently in a three-way tie for third place as a full time FOX news propogandist for the Bush administration war policy.
Report thisBy Claude King, August 23, 2006 at 1:24 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
When will the Democratic Party finally wake up and KICK Joe Lieberman out of the Party.
And when will the rest of the Democratic Party ACTUALLY start campaigning for LAMONT?
IF Lieberman should UNFORTUNATELY WIN in Connecticut - He will instantly CHANGE PARTY LOYALTY and announce that he is, in fact, a Republican. Then BUSH can KISS him again.
LIEBERMAN is such a real PUKE-ASS!!
Report thisBy George Fondis, August 23, 2006 at 1:08 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Is Joe Lieberman an American citizen on the the payroll of the Irgun and Stern gang?
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