Senator Lieberman spoke yesterday at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment's forum on "Next Steps for Successful Strategy in Iraq." Here is an excerpt from his remarks.

The costs of victory will be high in American lives lost and American money spent. But the costs of defeat would be disastrous. They include: the collapse of the new Iraqi regime, civil war, regional war, a victory for Zarqawi and al Qaeda (which will embolden them to attack both other Arab countries and our homeland), the rollback of democracy in the region and the painful realization that the lives of American soldiers who have died in Iraq were given in vain.

And also a heavy cost of lost opportunities: We are in Iraq not just to defeat the terrorists — not even mostly to defeat the terrorists. We are there to provide the security for self-government by the Iraqis — the creation of a modern, open, thriving state in this historic center of the Arab and Islamic worlds. If we accept defeat in Iraq, we will have lost the opportunity to create a larger victory in the so-called war "for the hearts and minds" in the Islamic world.

Lieberman tries to paper over disagreements among Democrats about what policy should be in Iraq. Perhaps that is due to the thoughts that led to the page one story in the Washington Post today about how Democrats are fearing a backlash from voters from statesments by Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking House Democratic leader, have told colleagues that Pelosi's recent endorsement of a speedy withdrawal, combined with her claim that more than half of House Democrats support her position, could backfire on the party, congressional sources said.

These sources said the two leaders have expressed worry that Pelosi is playing into Bush's hands by suggesting Democrats are the party of a quick pullout -- an unpopular position in many of the most competitive House races.

The Democrats would rather keep the focus on all their criticisms of Bush, but when it comes to them making any proposals on their own, they just can't seem to pull it off.