Senator Joe Lieberman (R-Tel Aviv) slipped into Baghdad yesterday to take a walk around a market, swaddled in Kevlar helmet, body vest, and surrounded by bullet stoppers bodyguards in order to announce that things are really, really improving this time, and that we are near the end of the tunnel, and just a little bit longer will see us through all this.

The caption of this photo should be “Deceitful politician laughs as he thinks of these poor schmucks stuck in Iraq for 30 years.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.

The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.

He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

"When are we going to get out of here?"

I can remember that even in 1968/69 one of the most popular songs in troop hooches was The Animals’ 1965 hit We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Soldiers always want to go home. But It doesn’t look like a good bet for the next two or three decades.

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee this month, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace uttered a “carefully worded” statement revealing that the Pentagon had no plans to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq if legislation passes Congress mandating troop redeployment:

PACE: Sir, we have published no orders directing the planning for the overall withdrawal of forces. We do have ongoing replacements of forces, and we do change the size of the force over time so that that system is available to either plus-up or draw down, but we have published no orders saying come up with a complete plan for total drawdown.

NPR investigated Pace’s statements and found one scenario being considered within the Pentagon would maintain a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq for several decades into the future.

SPC Williams, while waiting for Senator Joe to arrive to act concerned wrote down some other questions from his squadmates.

“When would they have upgraded Humvees that could withstand the armor-penetrating weapons that U.S. officials claim are from Iran?”

“When could they have body armor that was better in hot weather?”

Williams missed six months of his girlfriend's pregnancy when he was given six days' notice to return to Iraq for his second tour. He also missed his baby boy's birth. Three weeks ago, he went home and saw his first child.

"He looks just like me," he said. "I didn't want to come back. . . . We're waiting to get blown up."

Williams wasn't sure if he'd say how he really felt. But if he could, he'd ask about body armor.

"I don't want him to snap his fingers to get things fixed," Williams said, referring to Lieberman. "But he has influence."

That’s true, SPC Willams. He has influence, which is why you’ll be out there in the sandbox for the full 15 months, and then back there again for another 15 after 365 days at home.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like the Democrats intend to do much right now to help him see his son.

Next to him, Spc. Will Hedin, 21, of Chester, Conn., thought about what he was going to say.

"We're not making any progress," Hedin said, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. "It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."

But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.

"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."

This trooper is ready for NCO School. He’s learned a lot about the Army.

UPDATE: Christy at Firedoglake thinks that Whining Joe looks a lot like Elmer Fudd here in is helmet and vest. What do you think?