Lieberman ‘Really Upset’ At Troops Who Didn’t ‘Speak To Me From Their Heart’

Cripes. I cannot stand him...

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/07/lieberman-mcclatchy/

Lieberman ‘Really Upset’ At Troops Who Didn’t ‘Speak To Me From Their Heart’

During Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) trip to Iraq two weeks ago, McClatchy published an article highlighting how several soldiers who met with Lieberman had wanted to ask him, “When are we going to get out of here?” Others told McClatchy, “We’re waiting to get blown up,” and “We’re not making any progress,” but said they didn’t feel comfortable telling Lieberman their true feelings. One said he thought he would be demoted if he spoke openly.

This morning on CNN, Lieberman was asked about the article and appeared to blame the soldiers for not being honest with him. “I was really upset about it,” he said, because “I sat at a table with a bunch of our soldiers there” and “was asking them to speak to me from their heart.” Watch it at link~

Lieberman, who has called for a “truce in the political war” over Bush’s course in Iraq, has indicated he’s not interested in having an open debate. Moreover, Lieberman fails to understand that by stubbornly claiming “our troops must stay” in Iraq, he is communicating that he’s not interested in listening to soldiers who believe it’s time to leave.

Also on CNN, Lieberman claimed the “surge strategy…has worked” because it has “reduced sectarian deaths, particularly in Baghdad where we’re focused.” But sectarian deaths in Baghdad spiked 70 percent in May, beyond pre-escalation levels. Lieberman said this was a sign of success. “ur enemies, the insurgents and Al Qaida — insurgents particularly supported by Iran — see us winning, and they’re doing desperate things,” he said.


Transcript:

ROBERTS: But, Senator Lieberman, how do you square your claim of significant progress with the fact that May was the deadliest month in at least a couple of years — 26 U.S. servicemembers have died so far this month, just the month of June alone — and the fact that sectarian deaths are apparently on the increase again?

LIEBERMAN: Well, two parts. Here’s the point: We’re in a war. The surge strategy, which is just beginning to be fully implemented, has worked. It has reduced sectarian deaths, particularly in Baghdad where we’re focused.

They ticked back up in the last month. Why did they do that? Because our enemies, the insurgents and Al Qaida — insurgents particularly supported by Iran — see us winning, and they’re doing desperate things. More of them are prepared to blow themselves up to kill Iraqis or American soldiers.

Second, the heartbreaking tragedy for all of us as Americans is that the number of American casualties in Iraq has gone up in the last month. Part of that is because of the enemy desperately striking out. Part of it is because our soldiers courageously are now living and working side by side with the Iraqis in cities like Baghdad. You cannot do that without increasing the peril.

Is it worth it? I say yes, because the alternative which many are arguing for is to pull out, and to me that means a tremendous victory for Al Qaida, which is our number one enemy there now, and Iran, our second enemy there.

And if they win there, watch out throughout the rest of the Middle East and right here at home in the USA.

ROBERTS: As part of your trip, you met with some soldiers and Marines. One of the people you met with was Specialist Will Heden. Leila Fedel of McClatchy News Service spoke with Heden just before he talked to you and she wrote this in a recent article. She says: ‘We’re not making any progress,’ according to Heden, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. ‘It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at.’ But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Heden said he would never voice his true feelings to the senator.

Senator Lieberman, are you getting the real picture there?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, I tell you, I saw that article, John, and I was really upset about it. Because I sat at a table with a bunch of our soldiers there. I did it four or five times during the week. And I was asking them to speak to me from their heart.

A matter of fact, one of them spoke very directly about the fact that he wondered whether we were succeeding there. He said, nonetheless, that he believed — he actually wondered whether we should have gone into Iraq, but nonetheless, he told me how much he was committed to service in the Army and he wanted to re-enlist and stay there for the rest of his career.

I also spoke to a couple of soldiers at that table. These were folks from — soldiers from Connecticut. And one of them said to me when they hear the criticism and the calls for us to withdraw it says to them that what they’re doing is not worth it. And they believe it is worth it.

Another one says, If we pull out of here, the Iraqi police that I’m working side by side with every day are going to get killed, and so are their families. And who would ever trust the United States again in the world? Certainly not in the Middle East.

(CROSSTALK)

LIEBERMAN: I’m sorry he didn’t say that to me directly and I certainly would have respected that. It’s a tough, tough haul for our soldiers there.

All the SOB had to do is come here to DU or any other website dealing with the friggen war and he would see the comments from those brave soldiers out there.

All he had to do was ASK, SEEK, And LISTEN....Joe is so full of it I'm gonna hurl :puke:

We need a "I need to take a shower now" smiley icon!

That's what that icon is for!! :)

But the smiley needs a look of distress or disgust on his/her face.

they washed that lieman reading news right outta their hair! With multitudes of strong bubbly soap, of course!

why I wanted Ned Lamont so badly as the Senator from Connecticut..so we wouldn't have to hear this FUCKING WHINEY, LYING, DRIBBLE from the lieman ANYMORE!

on the 2000 ticket. :puke:

the thought. I wonder if he had so-called advisors telling him that his unwhollyness would be just to ticket to counteract the Clinton backlash that the repukes were capitalizing on? "Restoring values in the whitehouse"? Turns out they were fucked up values..but that's another problem, ain't it?

Gore was leaning toward Kerry (which would have been a dream ticket), but his "advisors" counseled that Kerry's history of "womanizing" (which occured during his UNMARRIED days!)would have left him vulnerable. Holy Joe was the prize that we got instead.

it quite that before! I do remember there were a shitload of dumb Democratic advisors on the loose around that time!

I know, I know.."have they gotten any better?!"

I bet Gore regrets that, don't you?
Lee

for NOTHING??

Go fuck yourself.

He therefore might not be aware that soldiers on active duty can get themselves into deep shit for 'speaking to someone from the heart', particularly when that someone is a US Senator.

It seems sacrifices are often worth it to those who have never been expected to actually make them.

Lunacy, but not unexpected. Come September, they're going to claim that it's all improving (as usual), and they only need another 6 months. And this cowardly, short-sighted Congress will give it to them.

that we should be expecting more violence in the coming months ... so ... our "outstanding and amazing show of force" encourages attacks, and that's a good thing???????

Boggles the mind ...

This just highlights Lieberman's abysmal, self-serving ignorance of military service. Kerry, Gore, or even McCain would NEVER take such a stupid, stupid posture. Joe's got his head up his ass. He went in there and TOLD them what they thought ... and made it perfectly obvious that he was speaking from another planet. I never knew a GI that would bother trying to disabuse some junketing pol of their embedded preconceptions ... it's a life-threatening folly in a combat zone with political ass-kissers in the command.

The elephant is in the room and NO ONE dares says a thing.

For one thing, serving soldiers have certain limits on what they're ALLOWED to say 'from the bottom of their hearts'.

For another, anyone who isn't up Bush's arse can see the disaster that's going on in Iraq!

I bet Lieberman is looking forward to June 27th - there'll be even more room for him up that capacious arse once the Poodle has said his final woof!

I am no fan of Lieberman, but WHERE does he say that he is upset "AT the troops"?

He says he was upset about the story. He could have been upset at himself, for not creating an atmosphere where they would open up to him.

I don't like Lieberman's position on the war at all, but twisting someone's words is what REPUBLICANS do. (And Hillary Clinton, but that's another story.)

Deaths go down = Surge is working
Deaths go up = Surge is working.

Thanks for the logic Joe.

"Tell me what's bothering you & I'll tell you why you're wrong" - Lieberman's motto. And I have never in my entire life heard a grown man whine incessantly as a method of speech outside of a cartoon. That shower icon is great!

Very convenient method of thinking.

One might even say they are in their last throes, eh Joe? You really have to love that logic. You have to give someone credit to have the brass balls to give that pitch with a straight face. "We're winning, violence is down" "What's that? Violence is up? We're winning. They know we are winning so they are resorting to violent acts of desperation." So to sum up: violence down = winning. Violence up = winning. That man gets a set a steak knives.