Lieberman Gets It. And, He Takes a Shot at Kerry

Michael Goldfarb picks up on something many have missed. While speaking to the Munich Conference on Security Policy, he had this to say:

I cannot speak about the global war of ideas without also acknowledging our struggle in Iraq.

I understand the frustration and anger that the Iraq war has created in America and toward America throughout the world, but I ask that those feelings not blind us to the larger truths about the enemy we are fighting, and about our shared interest in its defeat.

We are fighting in Iraq against the same violent ideology of radical Islam that NATO is fighting in Afghanistan and against which so many of our societies are struggling worldwide. The asymmetrical war of ideas I have discussed is irretrievably bound up in the outcome of the war in Iraq, as our common enemy keenly appreciates-at times it seems, better than we do.

As we have seen in Iraq, America is capable of mistakes large and small, but we are a principled nation, not a pariah nation.

Surely principled in the sense that America remains the indispensable nation in the fight for freedom throughout the world, precisely because we are willing to put our powers-economic, diplomatic, and, yes, military-in pursuit of our principles. But we have not and cannot act alone.

President Putin said yesterday that there is -one single center of power-in the world today. He is correct.

But that power is not the United States. It is the power of freedom.

Freedom speaks all languages and knows no borders. Walls and prisons cannot contain it, and totalitarianism cannot defeat it.

But the cause of freedom does not belong to one nation alone. On the contrary, the greatest triumphs of democracy in the twentieth century were achieved by the strength of our alliances, including particularly NATO.

Today once again our community of democratic nations faces profound challenges, and we have encountered disappointing setbacks.

But these challenges must call us now to remember who we are and what we stand for and to summon the will to defend both.

Rather than falling victim to doubt or exhaustion or division, let us sustain and strengthen our faith in all that binds and animates us-the values of freedom and tolerance and justice and democracy. Let us move forward, united and confident in our ultimate victory-the victory of freedom.

It's clear once again, that Joe Lieberman is the only Democrat who 'gets it.' Ultimately, the battle in Iraq is but one theater in a war of ideas - testing whether the west is committed to freedom and pluralism, or whether they will sit idly by while fascism expands its global reach.

On another note, you have to think that Joe Lieberman is having a great time right now. If revenge is a dish best served cold, he's passing out plates left and right. He knows he can criticize his Democratic colleagues at will, since they need him to retain the Senate majority. And by winning re-election over their opposition, he's shown he has no need of them.

I suggested many months ago that Lieberman would end up voting for Republican control of the Senate. If that is his intent, he could hardly paint a more enjoyable scenario than by castigating his Democratic colleagues at every turn, and then voting to switch control.