The Political Chase

Lieberman and Graham’s sprawling Middle-East resort

If Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham participate in Gen. David Petraeus’ and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s report to Congress over then next two days, it will be a serious waste of time on the their part. The already know everything that is important (and not important).

Accordingly, they have dutifully reported their formal findings to the Wall Street Journal. And it should come as no surprise that these two distinguished Senators determined things are going swimmingly well in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, excepting Iran. Forget al-Qaeda, Iran is the most heinous villain on Planet Earth according to Lieberman.

As a matter of fact, according to John-McCain-water-carriers Lieberman and Graham, their report is flawless, objective, and "no one can deny the dramatic improvements in security in Iraq achieved by Gen. Petraeus."

Indeed. Dissension is tantamount to treason.

Lieberman and Graham’s piece is absolutely worthless. They proudly cite three statistics — void of any citation — that are so broad and misleading they are not only meaningless, but downright laughable. And as for the remainder of their Iraq-specific conclusions, it ranges from pure political rhetoric BS to falsehoods.

From June 2007 through February 2008, deaths from ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad have fallen approximately 90%. American casualties have also fallen sharply, down by 70%…

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been swept from its former strongholds in Anbar province and Baghdad….

In the past seven months, the other main argument offered by critics of the Petraeus strategy has also begun to collapse: namely, the alleged lack of Iraqi political progress….

In recent months, the Iraqi government, encouraged by our Ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker, has passed benchmark legislation on such politically difficult issues as de-Baathification, amnesty, the budget and provincial elections. After boycotting the last round of elections, Sunnis now stand ready to vote by the millions in the provincial elections this autumn. The Iraqi economy is growing at a brisk 7% and inflation is down dramatically….

And, in launching the recent offensive in Basra, Mr. Maliki has demonstrated that he has the political will to take on the Shiite militias and criminal gangs, which he recently condemned as "worse than al Qaeda."

…Most importantly, Iran also continues to wage a vicious and escalating proxy war against the Iraqi government and the U.S. military. The Iranians have American blood on their hands. They are responsible, through the extremist agents they have trained and equipped, for the deaths of hundreds of our men and women in uniform. Increasingly, our fight in Iraq cannot be separated from our larger struggle to prevent the emergence of an Iranian-dominated Middle East.

While it is hard to argue that the surge did not yield improvements, there is no evidence to suggest the improvements were solely attributable to the surge or are sustainable, as the Senators aptly imply. Instead, there is evidence strongly suggesting the situation in Iraq is anything but a sprawling Madinat Jumeirah resort, which is substantially closer to the image Lieberman and Graham prefer to convey

The recent Basra incident alone, contrary to the enlightened duo’s assertion, is more than enough evidence to demonstrate Iraq’s poor political and security status. Furthermore, this graph from the Boston Globe piece I mentioned earlier today, clearly indicates an instability trend that the two Senators prefer to not reveal nor discuss.

    
Click image to enlarge

But facts, Constitutional leadership, nor soldiers’ welfare are relevant to Lieberman and Graham. They conclude, "the next steps in Iraq should be determined by…Gen. Petraeus," who is obviously our country’s Commander in Chief.