Sunday, December 10, 2006

Lieberman: Create Senate Iraq Group

Sen. Lieberman has proposed, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the formation of an Iraq Strategy Group in the Senate. From the Courant:
Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan M. Collins today proposed creating a new kind of Senate group to deliberate over Iraq policy, a group that would bring together top Senate leaders behind closed doors to debate and perhaps reshape U. S. strategy.

"The current strategy in Iraq has failed to achieve the goal of a peaceful, stable Iraq," said Collins, R-Maine.
[...]
...Lieberman and Collins will next month introduce legislation to create the Senate Consultative Group. It would include the top Democratic and Republican members of five key committees: Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security and Intelligence. (Lightman)

I am interested to see what Sen. Lieberman and others will come up with, but I have to think that he, like Bush, could potentially be a roadblock to a phased withdrawal or any sort of timeline for exit.

I'm not actually sure how much credibility Lieberman really has on Iraq anyway. He could serve as a bridge between hawks and those favoring withdrawal if he were willing to moderate his own hawkish stance. We may hear ideas like diplomatic engagement (on strict terms) or an increase in the number of troops from him.

Or we may hear nothing at all. This could just be more posturing. I can't really tell with Lieberman anymore. It could be a serious attempt to create workable policies, or something to add to his resume for 2008.

Source
Lightman, David. "Lieberman, Collins Propose Iraq Strategy Group." Hartford Courant 8 December, 2006.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is Liebermans way of trying to Block Sen. Levin power and it won't happen.

Lieberman still wants this war to Expand not Contract because he still believes thats in Israels interests.

Matt said...

What on earth does the Homeland Security committee have to do with Iraq policy?

Answer: Nothing.

If Lieberman wanted to do some good in the world, I'd recommend he start with building some levees in NOLA. That is a problem that is directly solvable by someone on the Homeland Security committee. Foreign policy is simply not in his portfolio, and he should do his goddamn job before screwing up somebody else's.