Joseph Lieberman, The Troop Surge, And My Democrat Friends

I wrote this in another place on the blogosphere in response to an acquaintance who accused me of being "in the cheering section for Senator Joseph Lieberman and Bush on the 'troop surge' idea:"

I am sorry that I have not been the paragon of good sense and intelligence that others (including you) on this board have been.

Actually, I am where a large of chunk of intelligent Americans are on this issue. (I ask you to consider that it's possible for a person to disagree with you and still be intelligent.) I was nervous about invading Iraq but thought we had to do it because of the WMD evidence. In those days, the debate was, for the most part, not over whether the late Saddam had the WMD, but what to do about them. [Another poster's] solution at the time was to force extremely intrusive inspections on Saddam ("bordering on occupation" was the phrase I think he used), find the WMD, and remove them from the country. Or something along those lines. I do not recall where you were on the issue but I'm sure you knew there were no WMD and that Bush is a chimpanzee.

Once we were all surprised to find the late Saddam had no WMD, we were all pretty much stuck. Bush and Co. tried to morph the mission into a democracy-spreading project, and many if us went along with that, since once were were there we needed to find a way not to leave the place worse off than it was before, and perhaps to make some gains in the war on terror.

The three successful and historic democratic elections in Iraq were just another effort by the chimp to cover up his mistake. I am sure you knew this. But I digress.

Now I am looking at this situation and watching Americans get killed regularly, along with even more innocent Iraqis. I'm watching weapons and men come into Iraq from Syria and Iran. I'm wondering what we consider "victory" in Iraq, since Bush has done an awful job of defining that. (He's done pretty well for a guy who cannot use the English language.) I think many mistakes have been made, as they always are in war. (But I suppose the "chimp brigade" on this board are certain that no mistakes are ever made in wars, because they've either never read much history or didn't pay attention when they did.)

The whole thing's a mess, as wars always are, but it has many redeeming features. In hindsight, I wish we hadn't gone in but I understand why we did and supported that decision at the time. The chimp brigade here are simply a bunch of very partisan Democrats who hate Bush and will never give him credit for anything he has done. I understand that. I am hoping that the next time the Democrats elect their own genius to the presidency, I won't be like you guys. You add nothing to the discussion and are really quite boring when it comes to these matters.

But I still like you . . . and would buy for any of you your beverage of choice any time.