Friday, June 8, 2007
Lieberman Endorses Military Strikes Against Iran
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday advocated the use of military action against Iran to halt what he said was that nation's training and support of terrorists against U.S. troops in Iraq.
"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"And to me, that would include a strike into -- over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers," he said.
Lieberman, I-Conn., said he supports U.S. talks with Iran, but negotiations would not alone be sufficient if Iranian backing of terrorism continues. U.S. and Iranian diplomats met on May 28 to discuss security in Iraq. It was the first formal, scheduled meeting between since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran following the Nov. 4, 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.
"What we did was present them with evidence that we have, that I've seen, that I believe is incontrovertible that the Iranians are training and equipping Iraqi extremists to come in, into Iraq, and they're killing American soldiers and Iraqis," Lieberman said.
Lieberman also said talks might not be enough to force Iran to halt its nuclear program.
"But if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them. If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force and to me that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."
Asked if he would support ground combat forces or air strikes, Lieberman said: "I'd leave that to the generals in charge. I think you could probably do a lot of it from the air, but they can't believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans."
He said he is "not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran."
A spokesman for Lieberman could not be reached for comment Sunday morning.
Lieberman was elected last November to a fourth term as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to an anti-war challenger whose campaign tapped strong opposition among Connecticut Democrats to his support of President Bush's war policy in Iraq.
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday advocated the use of military action against Iran to halt what he said was that nation's training and support of terrorists against U.S. troops in Iraq.
"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"And to me, that would include a strike into -- over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers," he said.
Lieberman, I-Conn., said he supports U.S. talks with Iran, but negotiations would not alone be sufficient if Iranian backing of terrorism continues. U.S. and Iranian diplomats met on May 28 to discuss security in Iraq. It was the first formal, scheduled meeting between since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran following the Nov. 4, 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.
"What we did was present them with evidence that we have, that I've seen, that I believe is incontrovertible that the Iranians are training and equipping Iraqi extremists to come in, into Iraq, and they're killing American soldiers and Iraqis," Lieberman said.
Lieberman also said talks might not be enough to force Iran to halt its nuclear program.
"But if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them. If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force and to me that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."
Asked if he would support ground combat forces or air strikes, Lieberman said: "I'd leave that to the generals in charge. I think you could probably do a lot of it from the air, but they can't believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans."
He said he is "not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran."
A spokesman for Lieberman could not be reached for comment Sunday morning.
Lieberman was elected last November to a fourth term as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to an anti-war challenger whose campaign tapped strong opposition among Connecticut Democrats to his support of President Bush's war policy in Iraq.
