Senators Joe Lieberman and Jack Reed appeared on last Sunday's This Week and as always, Holy Joe goes to battle for his BFF, GOP presidential candidate John McCain. McCain has been struggling to stay on message and to fool connect with the average voter, so Joe gladly gives him a hand by distorting facts and outright lying about the state of the Iraqi government and U.S. troop withdrawals:
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LIEBERMAN: With all respect to Jack -- and he's my dear friend -- the Iraqi political leadership has reconciled. I mean, that's one of the great things that's happened as a result of the surge. There's greater security. Maliki has shown strength. The Sunnis are now trusting him, and the Kurds are, as well. The economy is moving. Iraq is on the way...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But then the U.S. can withdraw, right?
LIEBERMAN: The U.S. is withdrawing. In fact, the surge troops
are coming out. We expect to hear from General Petraeus this summer, as he told us earlier in the year before the Armed Services Committee, about whether we can bring more troops out in the fall.
I wonder if Joe read the GAO report released last month (PDF) that states that the surge isn't going as well as he says it is? A little truthiness goes a long way with the uniformed American, and Joe has shown amazing talent in that area. SOME of the surge troops will be coming home this summer, but President Bush put a freeze on further troop withdrawals. This freeze is supposed to be temporary, but it's not likely to be lifted before the November election. As for Iraqi reconciliation:
Has the Iraqi government followed through on its promises? Well, the GAO reports that while some legislation has been passed to restore Ba'ath Party members to government (although many have questioned the legitimacy of these efforts), give amnesty to some detainees and define provincial powers, on many of the larger, stickier issues, no progress has been made. The report notes that the Iraqi government has not enacted "important legislation for sharing oil resources or holding provincial elections" and that "[e]fforts to complete constitutional review have also stalled." Read on...
