Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Sen. Joe Lieberman Alarmed by Radical Islam Threat
Sen. Joseph Lieberman said opponents of President Bush’s policies on the Iraq war are exercising "wrong-headed thinking” and are operating in a "political climate” where Bush can only do wrong.
In a speech Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Lieberman called Islamist extremism "a totalitarian ideology as violent and vicious as the fascism and communism we Americans and our allies fought and defeated in the last century.”
And he lamented: "Unfortunately, many in our country today do not seem to share that critical understanding of the threats we face. Increasingly, the debate over our foreign policy is becoming so polarized, so bound up in the battles we are having here in Washington, that it seems blind to the real battle outside America, the challenge of our time from the Islamist extremists.”
Lieberman said an early withdrawal from Iraq would constitute a victory for Iran and al-Qaida, and a "catastrophic defeat” for the U.S. He urged support for Bush’s plan for a troop "surge” in Iraq.
The White House has previously cited Lieberman’s support for the administration’s Iraq policy. Press Secretary Tony Snow deplored his loss in the Democratic primary in Connecticut last year. And in an interview that appeared on the White House Web site, Vice President Dick Cheney likened Lieberman’s defeat to a "purge” of a strong supporter of the war on terror. Lieberman did win re-election as an independent candidate.
In his speech to AIPAC – America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, with some 100,000 members – Lieberman said: "There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism. There is something profoundly wrong when there is so much distrust of our intelligence community that some Americans doubt the plain and ominous facts about the threat to us posed by Iran.
"And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and abandoning our friends and allies.
"Some of this wrong-headed thinking about the world is happening because we're in a political climate where, for many people, when George Bush says ‘yes,’ their reflex reaction is to say ‘no.’ That is unacceptable.”
Sen. Joseph Lieberman said opponents of President Bush’s policies on the Iraq war are exercising "wrong-headed thinking” and are operating in a "political climate” where Bush can only do wrong.
In a speech Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Lieberman called Islamist extremism "a totalitarian ideology as violent and vicious as the fascism and communism we Americans and our allies fought and defeated in the last century.”
And he lamented: "Unfortunately, many in our country today do not seem to share that critical understanding of the threats we face. Increasingly, the debate over our foreign policy is becoming so polarized, so bound up in the battles we are having here in Washington, that it seems blind to the real battle outside America, the challenge of our time from the Islamist extremists.”
Lieberman said an early withdrawal from Iraq would constitute a victory for Iran and al-Qaida, and a "catastrophic defeat” for the U.S. He urged support for Bush’s plan for a troop "surge” in Iraq.
The White House has previously cited Lieberman’s support for the administration’s Iraq policy. Press Secretary Tony Snow deplored his loss in the Democratic primary in Connecticut last year. And in an interview that appeared on the White House Web site, Vice President Dick Cheney likened Lieberman’s defeat to a "purge” of a strong supporter of the war on terror. Lieberman did win re-election as an independent candidate.
In his speech to AIPAC – America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, with some 100,000 members – Lieberman said: "There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism. There is something profoundly wrong when there is so much distrust of our intelligence community that some Americans doubt the plain and ominous facts about the threat to us posed by Iran.
"And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and abandoning our friends and allies.
"Some of this wrong-headed thinking about the world is happening because we're in a political climate where, for many people, when George Bush says ‘yes,’ their reflex reaction is to say ‘no.’ That is unacceptable.”
