| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
31 May 2007 07:09:08 PM |
| Object: |
Progress? What Progress? Troops Vent at Chickenhawk Joe LIEberman |
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/05/hbc-90000203
May 31, 2007
Progress? What Progress? Troops Vent at Lieberman
BY Scott Horton
No U.S. senator has made more trips out to Iraq than Joe Lieberman.
He’s a fixture out there.
The regular junket has been a part of his campaign to be “Mr. Iraq” in
the Senate.
About a year ago, when I was working in Baghdad, I listened to a young
captain vent about all the time and energy the Army was forced to
expend on the regular visits of CODELs – Congressional delegations.
“I guess our democratic process requires it. But I really wish these
dopes would open their eyes and actually learn something, rather than
use Iraq as a backdrop for speeches that fit in to some preconceived
political strategy.”
I later asked:
who were you taking around?
And the answer:
Joe Lieberman.
Today, it appears, some troops actually worked up the courage to
confront Lieberman over his shameless hucksterism.
On his current trip, Lieberman gave this official pronouncement, as
reported in the Chicago Tribune:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/05/lieberman_sees_.html
”Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant
progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see
progress in war that means you’re headed in the right direction.”
Stepping out of the bubble and into reality, of course, what shape
does that “progress” take?
Far heavier levels of violence across the board in Iraq, and
particularly in Baghdad, the focus of the current operations.
A broad perception that the situation is less safe for civilians than
before.
Record numbers of casualties among U.S. soldiers.
Now that’s some progress.
But word of Lieberman’s exercise in the theater of the absurd got out
to the soldiers he was visiting, and they were not amused.
McClatchy reports on what happened next:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17300884.htm
The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions
for the senator.
He wrote them all down.
At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every
one of his fellow soldiers:
"When are we going to get out of here?”
The rest was a laundry list.
When would they have upgraded Humvees that could withstand the
armor-penetrating weapons that U.S. officials claim are from Iran?
When could they have body armor that was better in hot weather? . . .
It isn’t clear whether Williams mentioned the last line on his note
card, the one that had a star next to it.
“We don’t feel like we’re making any progress,” it said.
.
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| User: "Perseid" |
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| Title: Re: Progress? What Progress? Troops Vent at Chickenhawk Joe LIEberman |
31 May 2007 09:58:00 PM |
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After Much Chewing of Cud and Cogitation, Harry Hope
<rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> Spat the Words
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/05/hbc-90000203
May 31, 2007
Progress? What Progress? Troops Vent at Lieberman
BY Scott Horton
No U.S. senator has made more trips out to Iraq than Joe Lieberman.
He’s a fixture out there.
The regular junket has been a part of his campaign to be “Mr. Iraq” in
the Senate.
About a year ago, when I was working in Baghdad, I listened to a young
captain vent about all the time and energy the Army was forced to
expend on the regular visits of CODELs – Congressional delegations.
Lieberman is actually an Israeli who has infiltrated the US Gov't.
He works for the Jews in the MidEast, not America.
.
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