Lieberman: WMDs Weren't the Real Reason
While the Times continues to pretend that Ned Lamont doesn't exist, it runs yet another piece on Joe Lieberman today. I know Lieberman is the better-known name, the higher visibility figure here, but really—the Times' coverage of this campaign is awful.
Anyway, the story is actually kind of interesting, as it shows how Lieberman is cozying up to conservatives (and vice-versa), and how his rationale for the war in Iraq is changing with the passage of time and the acquisition of wacky new right-wing friends.
If we leave Iraq too soon, Lieberman said in an interview with Don Imus, another MSM-friend, "It will be an all-out civil war. The Iranians will rush in and control probably at least the southern part of Iraq."
During a radio interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, according to the Times,
Mr. Lieberman seemed to agree with Mr. Beck that the struggle against “Islamist terrorists” was similar to the campaign to contain fascism on the eve of World War II. During that interview, Mr. Beck said that invading Iraq on the basis of a perceived threat of weapons of mass destruction was a “nice side benefit,” but that the broader goal was to “go and pop the head of the snake in Iran.”
Going into Iraq for WMD was "a nice side benefit"?
“I don’t think anybody had the courage or could actually come out and say that with world politics the way they are,” Mr. Beck added.
Mr. Lieberman responded: “Well, you’re right. And I think if I fault the administration for anything before the war — because I think we did the right thing in going in to overthrow Saddam — it’s that they oversold the W.M.D. part of the argument.”
The reason, of course, that the administration "oversold the W.M.D. part of the argument" is merely that, without it, there was no argument for invading Iraq.
Let us look closely at what Lieberman has said. One of the reasons we invaded Iraq, apparently, was to deal with the threat of Iran. (How exactly the one is connected to the other, I will allow Lieberman to twist-and-shout his way out of at some future date.)
But then again, if we leave Iraq now, Iran will take over part of the country. Which it wasn't actually threatening or even able to do
before we invaded Iraq.
This is intellectual mush on the part of a senator who is supposed to be intellectually serious.
Let us also look closely at who Lieberman is keeping company with. The Times refers to Glenn Beck as a "conservative" talk show host. Not exactly. He's nuts. Beck has called survivors of Hurricane Katrina "scumbags" and said that he "hates" 9/11 victims. Beck, who is Mormon, also believes in the apocalypse and expects "a world war of biblical proportions."
Joe Lieberman's personal apocalypse continues.
