Ned Lamont lashes out against Bush's troop surge proposal

Ned Lamont made his first public remarks after his mid-term election loss at Yale University Wednesday night. Blasting the Bush/McCain/Lieberman troop surge proposal, Lamont calls the latest move by the President "more of the same" and "out of touch with reality."

The New Haven Indy was on the scene and did such a great write-up that I'll skip typing up my views.

One day after President Bush addressed the nation with his intention to send another 21,500 troops to Iraq to buttress forces already stationed there, former Senate candidate Ned Lamont told a New Haven audience that Bush's strategy was inviting the "nightmare scenario" he hoped to avoid.

Lamont, in his first public speech since his defeat in the November general election to U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, took issue with President Bush's decision to embark on this "new strategy" in Iraq. He spoke to hundreds of members of Yale's Political Union.

"It's the same strategy, just with a few more troops," he said in regard to President Bush's proposed "surge" in troop levels. "It's more of the same, and it's not working."

[...]

Lamont commended the findings of the Iraq Study Group, chaired by Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton, whose report advocated continued support even while most Americans were removed from the line of fire. As a response to President Bush's call for reinforcements, Lamont argued for a renewed debate on the merits of the war and called for the creation of a "bipartisan alternative" to the position advocated by the Administration-which he called "the least likely path to success-a necessity, he said, given that "the American people do not support the war, and they do not support the surge."

[...]

Again and again, Lamont emphasized his belief in the unlikelihood of finding an American-driven answer to the problems plaguing Iraq. "There is no military solution to the situation in Iraq," he said-an opinion, he told those assembled, shared by high-ranking military officials, members of both parties, and "maybe even by Joe Lieberman," he joked.

Here's my video report on the event.