It is time to restore that fear

Another Joe Lieberman Wall Street Journal op-ed article. Hands up, anyone whose mind has been changed, or who knows anyone whose mind has been changed, or has heard a rumor of anyone whose mind has been changed, by the surgical application of logic, the devastating deployment of expert knowledge and keen insight and rapier-like wit that mark all such offerings from the distinguished senator from the Connecticut for Lieberman Party.

He has abandoned all attempts to convince us that we’re winning in Iraq or that we can and will establish a democratic utopia there. No, now it’s all about Iran and the need not to send a “message throughout the region that Iran is on the rise and America is on the run.”

To prove that Iran is behind all of our military woes, he cites one Gen. Kevin Bergner, who earlier this week claimed that Iran’s secret agents are funding Hezbollah’s secret agents who are doing bad things in Iraq. He knows all about this because they caught some Lebanese guy in Iraq in March, who’s been a member of Hezbollah for 24 years and this terrorist mastermind kept... wait for it... a diary.

Incidentally, Holy Joe massaged Gen. Bergner’s claims a little bit. Where Bergner said that Iran trains 20 to 60 Iraqi insurgents at a time, Lieberman says “up to 60,” and where Bergner said that Iran sends $750,000 to $3 million a month to the insurgents, Lieberman says, “Iran has also funded its Iraqi proxies generously, to the tune of $3 million a month.” Somehow I failed to gasp in horror. Holy Joe, who gasps in horror at the perfidy of Muslims six times before breakfast, says that Iran plans with this rather modest investment to push the US out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and “dominate” those countries through its “proxies.”

Iran, “by its actions, has all but declared war on us and our allies in the Middle East.” He says they believe they can operate “without fear of retaliation. It is time to restore that fear, and to inject greater doubt into the decision-making of Iranian leaders about the risks they are now running.”

Restoring fear is, of course, Holy Joe’s raison d’être, his work and his hobby and his constant joy. The people he would really like to restore fear to are members of Congress (the article really isn’t aimed at the general public at all). He believes that focusing on “the fanatical regime in Tehran” will restore a little fear, or at least make them a little less relieved at the prospect of extricating ourselves from the slaughter: “I hope the new revelations about Iran’s behavior will also temper the enthusiasm of some of those in Congress who are advocating the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.” Temper that enthusiasm! It emboldens Iran, which “is betting that our political disunity in Washington will constrain us in responding to its attacks.” In other words, Pete Domenici is an agent of Iran. I’ll bet it says that somewhere in that diary. Has anyone checked?