“No matter what you think about what’s happening in Iraq, what’s happening in Iran, America broke its word here and we can’t let that happen,” Lieberman said on Fox News.
Lieberman was referring to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella opposition group to the Iranian regime that has some of its members based at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. The resistance has reported losing 116 of its fighters recently to violence sweeping over Iraq.
“[The National Council of Resistance of Iran] were there, in Iraq, and we said to them, ‘Put down your arms, give us your weapons, we will protect you,’ and we did protect them for a period of time,” Lieberman said. “But then as we began to pull out of Iraq in 2009…we promised them, ‘The Iraqis will take care of you.’ Well, the Iraqis haven’t taken care of them and by turning them over to…[Iraq] we broke our promise, and I’m afraid we’ve created a real humanitarian crisis.”
He added, “This is, today, a question of America’s word. At any moment, a push from Iran could turn [Iraqi] guns on these people and that would be a terrible stain on America’s honor and reputation. We’ve got to get them out of there as quickly as possible.
