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| ***Now you can do your Google searches right from ProudConservative.com*** |
| LIEBERMAN'S REPORT ON IRAQ |
| The following article is an op-ed written by Senator Joseph Lieberman....Democrat from Connecticut...my home state. It was originally published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, November 29, 2005. Here are the words from a man who is putting his country in front of partisan politics. I will always support what is right for this country whether it comes from a Democrat or a Republican. I offer Sen. Lieberman my congratulations and respect for putting the truth about this war out there for all to see. We are winning in Iraq and we will win in Iraq. Don't let Howard Dean fool you! - Trent |
We can't leave 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists
By Sen. Joseph Lieberman
I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More
work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the
primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood — unless the great
American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The
primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public
services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle,
geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the
terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.
There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell
phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively
campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and
economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi
and American military there to protect it.
It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and
prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al-Qaida
foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists
are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan
as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this
war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to
strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has
long been a major American national and economic security priority.
Middle East progress
Before going to Iraq last week, I visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has been the only genuine
democracy in the region, but it is now getting some welcome company from the Iraqis and Palestinians who are in
the midst of robust national legislative election campaigns, the Lebanese who have risen up in proud self-
determination after the Hariri assassination to eject their Syrian occupiers (the Syrian- and Iranian-backed
Hezbollah militias should be next), and the Kuwaitis, Egyptians and Saudis who have taken steps to open up their
governments more broadly to their people. In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-
Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the
Arab world. He is right.
In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, 8 million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in
January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than
that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis
have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over
the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. Most encouraging has been the behavior of the Sunni
community, which, when disappointed by the proposed constitution, registered to vote and went to the polls
instead of taking up arms and going to the streets. Last week, I was thrilled to see a vigorous political campaign,
and a large number of independent television stations and newspapers covering it.
None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am
convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are
withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.
Much to lose
The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about
America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in
Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how
President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more
worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about
how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.
Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in
support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities
show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82
percent are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal
mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will
and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.
The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal
Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi
democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress
against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.
Clear, hold, build
Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to
make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the
years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war
should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion,
from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "Clear, Hold
and Build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.
We are now embedding a core of coalition forces in every Iraqi fighting unit, which makes each unit more effective
and acts as a multiplier of our forces. Progress in clearing and holding is being made. The Sixth Infantry Division of
the Iraqi Security Forces now controls and polices more than one-third of Baghdad on its own. Coalition and Iraqi
forces have together cleared the previously terrorist-controlled cities of Fallujah, Mosul and Tal Afar, and most of
the border with Syria. Those areas are now being held secure by the Iraqi military themselves. Iraqi and coalition
forces are jointly carrying out a mission to clear Ramadi, now the most dangerous city in Al-Anbar province at the
west end of the Sunni Triangle.
Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the
Iraqi military are able to lead the fight themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should
double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to
the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller
American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to
be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come.
The economic reconstruction of Iraq has gone slower than it should have, and too much money has been wasted
or stolen. Ambassador Khalilzad is now implementing reform that has worked in Afghanistan — Provincial
Reconstruction Teams, composed of American economic and political experts, working in partnership in each of
Iraq's 18 provinces with its elected leadership, civil service and the private sector. That is the build part of the
clear, hold and build strategy, and so is the work American and international teams are doing to professionalize
national and provincial governmental agencies in Iraq.
These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi
people are optimistic about their future — and why the American people should be, too.
Carrying the fight
I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are
courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great
group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops
had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive
and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper
it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause,
not by political debates."
Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this
critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.
Joseph Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut.
By Sen. Joseph Lieberman
I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More
work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the
primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood — unless the great
American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The
primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public
services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle,
geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the
terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.
There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell
phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively
campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and
economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi
and American military there to protect it.
It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and
prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al-Qaida
foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists
are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan
as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this
war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to
strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has
long been a major American national and economic security priority.
Middle East progress
Before going to Iraq last week, I visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has been the only genuine
democracy in the region, but it is now getting some welcome company from the Iraqis and Palestinians who are in
the midst of robust national legislative election campaigns, the Lebanese who have risen up in proud self-
determination after the Hariri assassination to eject their Syrian occupiers (the Syrian- and Iranian-backed
Hezbollah militias should be next), and the Kuwaitis, Egyptians and Saudis who have taken steps to open up their
governments more broadly to their people. In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-
Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the
Arab world. He is right.
In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, 8 million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in
January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than
that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis
have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over
the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. Most encouraging has been the behavior of the Sunni
community, which, when disappointed by the proposed constitution, registered to vote and went to the polls
instead of taking up arms and going to the streets. Last week, I was thrilled to see a vigorous political campaign,
and a large number of independent television stations and newspapers covering it.
None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am
convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are
withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.
Much to lose
The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about
America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in
Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how
President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more
worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about
how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.
Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in
support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities
show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82
percent are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal
mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will
and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.
The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal
Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi
democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress
against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.
Clear, hold, build
Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to
make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the
years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war
should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion,
from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "Clear, Hold
and Build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.
We are now embedding a core of coalition forces in every Iraqi fighting unit, which makes each unit more effective
and acts as a multiplier of our forces. Progress in clearing and holding is being made. The Sixth Infantry Division of
the Iraqi Security Forces now controls and polices more than one-third of Baghdad on its own. Coalition and Iraqi
forces have together cleared the previously terrorist-controlled cities of Fallujah, Mosul and Tal Afar, and most of
the border with Syria. Those areas are now being held secure by the Iraqi military themselves. Iraqi and coalition
forces are jointly carrying out a mission to clear Ramadi, now the most dangerous city in Al-Anbar province at the
west end of the Sunni Triangle.
Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the
Iraqi military are able to lead the fight themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should
double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to
the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller
American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to
be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come.
The economic reconstruction of Iraq has gone slower than it should have, and too much money has been wasted
or stolen. Ambassador Khalilzad is now implementing reform that has worked in Afghanistan — Provincial
Reconstruction Teams, composed of American economic and political experts, working in partnership in each of
Iraq's 18 provinces with its elected leadership, civil service and the private sector. That is the build part of the
clear, hold and build strategy, and so is the work American and international teams are doing to professionalize
national and provincial governmental agencies in Iraq.
These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi
people are optimistic about their future — and why the American people should be, too.
Carrying the fight
I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are
courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great
group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops
had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive
and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper
it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause,
not by political debates."
Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this
critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.
Joseph Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut.
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