JOE LIEBERMAN: A DEFEAT IN IRAQ WILL BE THE FAULT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

A simply fantastic (in the sense of fantasy) interview with Joe Lieberman on the Hugh Hewitt Show just now.

HH: Does the American media generally, getting…walking away from CNN or Mr. Ware…

JL: Yeah.

HH: Does it generally produce coverage that strikes you as balanced? Or is it just overwhelmingly defeatist?

JL: It’s very negative, and I mean, I think it’s really hurt the war, the political war at home. Look, the American military, working together with coalition forces including Iraqis, will never lose the war in Iraq. I just can’t stress that enough.

HH: Right.

JL: We will never lose the war in Iraq. If America suffers a defeat in Iraq, it will be because the American people didn’t stick with it, didn’t have the will. And some people here in leadership positions politically were so much against it that they built up that public opposition, that a lot of it is framed by the media. I won’t say a lot of them lie, but the constant focus is on the suicide bombers.

And there you have it. It's all the fault of the American people. Dadgummit, don't they get it that we war hawks know what's best for them? I mean, despite all our screwups so far, all our faulty predictions and preparations, all our failed "stay the course" scenarios, we believe in the FORCE, by god! and what we want, we believe we will have! And if we can't get enough Americans to drink the kool aid, it'll be their fault that we screw up once again, and no fault of ours that the Middle East disintegrates! The audience just didn't clap loudly enough! (sigh) Peter Pan would understand.

But honestly, who are we fighting there? We’re fighting al Qaeda and Iran.

Oh yes. It's a fact that Al Qaeda in Iraq is Bush's creation. It simply didn't exist before our invasion of that country. And, according to The Decider, our enemy are not the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, and we are not caught between warring religious factions. No, in the world according to Joe Lieberman, he will support a military strike on Iran and a spreading of U.S.-sponsored warfare in whatever hot spot attracts his notice.

But whatever the result of Joementum rhetoric and policies, his sentiments are clear: it's the fault of the people, the people who voted him and George W. Bush into office and especially those who didn't. It's the pussiness of Americans who have paid in blood and treasure for a war as expensive, and less popular, than any war in our history, but yet not seen any reason to continue to believe that more American deaths would make our shores safer, that would be aiding the enemy and ensuring our defeat. The harm to our nation's soul for invading a sovereign nation that did not threaten us and then killing tens of thousands of that nation's civilians ... the ill we're doing to the nature of our gallant military we have deployed there by condoning torture and the reckless execution of innocent Iraqis ... the depletion of our country's financial resources (which derive from the taxpayers) to simultaneously destroy and ineffectively try to rebuild the invaded nation's infrastructure while neglecting the needs of our own citizens for security and opportunity ...

No, Joe is (read the transcript) very comfortable with "carrying a banner for a group of Democrats who believe that you could be, you know, progressive on domestic policy and tough on foreign policy." A group who, according to the people he cited, are all dead. Joe, I don't think that given the current circumstances, any one of the people you referenced would be sitting beside you.