Lieberman Confronted By Troops In Iraq: ‘When Are We Going To Get Out Of Here?’

[Demeter]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/30/lieberman-iraq/

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) made an unannounced trip to Iraq today, telling reporters, “what I see here today is progress, significant progress.” Hours later, he was confronted by U.S. soldiers with a very different message: “We don’t feel like we’re making any progress.”

McClatchy reports tonight on Spc. David Williams, who collected questions for Lieberman from 30 other troops.

At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

“When are we going to get out of here?”

The rest was a laundry list. When would they have upgraded Humvees that could withstand the armor-penetrating weapons that U.S. officials claim are from Iran? When could they have body armor that was better in hot weather?

Williams missed six months of his girlfriend’s pregnancy when he was given six days’ notice to return to Iraq for his second tour. He also missed his baby boy’s birth. Three weeks ago, he went home and saw his first child.

“He looks just like me,” he said. “I didn’t want to come back. . . . We’re waiting to get blown up.” <…>

Next to him, Spc. Will Hedin, 21, of Chester, Conn., thought about what he was going to say.

“We’re not making any progress,” Hedin said, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. “It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at. … It’s just more troops, more targets.”

In the past two months, the unit has lost two men. In May alone, at least 120 U.S. troops died in Iraq, the bloodiest month in 2007 and the highest number since the battles of Fallujah in 2004.


Spc. Kevin Krasco, 20, of Medford, Mass., and Spc. Kevin Adams, 20, of Moosup, Conn., chimed in with their dismay before turning the conversation to baseball.

“It’s like everything else in this war,” Adams said, referring to Baghdad. “It hasn’t changed.”

Later, Lieberman walked in to see the soldiers “wearing a pair of sunglasses newly purchased from an Iraqi market that the military had taken him to in southeast Baghdad.” In response to their questions about leaving Iraq, Lieberman said it would be a “victory for al-Qaida and a victory for Iran.”

[shain from kane]

1. Sunglasses? More likely rose-colored glasses.

[zbdent]

6. you know, it makes me wonder ... how many millions of dollars have been spent

so that Republicans (yes, I'm throwing Lieberman under that bus) can buy cheap goods ... a $5 rug and sunglasses that ZZ Top would probably decline using as "too cheap" ...

[shain from kane]

14. What an imagination Lieberman and McCain have. Go all the way to Iraq, the Cradle of

Western Civilization, and decide to stroll through the closest marketplace, and buy cheap trinkets.

My Senator went to Iraq, and all he got was cheap trinkets.

[Kagemusha]

2. You know, nothing in the original article verifies there was a confrontation.

The reporter didn't get to see if "When are we getting out?" was asked. Officers probably don't make a habit of allowing senators to be publicly humiliated on a trip to the military in the field.

Just mentioning it since this view of what happened ("confrontation") has gained wide circulation.

[endarkenment]

11. unfortunately you appear to be correct.

A careful reading of the McClatchey article indicates that the reporter does not know which if any of these questions were asked.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17300884.htm

[Kagemusha]

13. Well it's not like I wanna chew out Think Progress for it either.

If you skim the article quickly it's an easy technicality to completely miss. Dramatic writing basically. It's not 'wrong', it's just that (unfortunately!) I can only assume that the realities of sucking up to powerful senators makes it unlikely Lieb was asked anything "confrontational" - even if that's what the soldiers WANTED to have him asked, in their presence.

But if the DoD wanted that they wouldn't have soldiers pass questions to someone else in advance to begin with. The system here exists to shelter VIP's to protect the DoD's collective rear end.

Mind you, it's still an important story that whether or not the military thwarted the soldiers' intended questions for Lieberman, the questions were led by "When do we get out of here?" regardless of whatever propaganda comes out of that trip.

[Justyce]

3. Every one of them that says

that crap, "it would be letting the terrorists win to leave blah blah blah" and push so hard to keep us there should have to stay over there until they decide it's "safe" for us to leave... :mad:

[jwirr]

12. Letting the terrorists win? Last I heard we went into Iraq under false

pretenses and that it was not after terrorists. What the pols are saying is that if we lose we lose the oil and *ss cannot have that happen on his watch - he'd lose all his "friends".

[endarkenment]

4. It is time our party leaders started SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS

And the way to do that is to get them out of Bush's War.

[zbdent]

5. Why does that soldier serving in Iraq hate the troops serving in Iraq?

;)

Gee, Lieberman is one of the main reasons why the Dems can't get anything done ...

[xchrom]

7. first mccain -- and now lieberman --

why don't they say it? -- we're bringing the iraqis the Freedom to Shop!

[Totally Committed]

8. I wonder if Holy Joeses told them what a good idea he thought keeping them there

for the duration was? Or, if he told them he thought even MORE soldiers should be sent there? Or... if he was even honest with them about anything at all?

He should never have been returned to the Senate.

TC

[Turbineguy]

9. I'll have to

visit Iraq soon. I could use some stylish new sunglasses.

About the only good thing about the election being stolen from Al Gore is we did not get Lamebrain Lieberman for Veep.

[dave_p]

10. "a victory for al-Qaida and a victory for Iran"??

No, sending them there was a victory for al-Qaida (which got to escape in Afghanistan and gained a swell new recruiting issue & training ground in Iraq) and a victory for Iran (which saw another neighboring enemy replaced with friendlier faces, as in Kabul).

The guy's an obscenity.