By Brigitte L. Nacos
As Vice-President Richard Cheney renewed his criticism of House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to curb some funding for the Iraq war, he also continued to tout Iraq as success
story or, actually, as “success stories.” Just
as the White House spun Prime Minister Tony Blair’s plan to begin a withdrawal
of British troops from Iraq into evidence for the success of the coalition
forces, Cheney told Jonathan Karl of ABC News,
In Iraq, what we've done now is we've
taken down Saddam Hussein. He's dead. His sons are dead. His government is
gone. There's a democratically elected government in place. We've had three
national elections in
with higher turnout that we have in the United States. They've got a good
constitution. They've got a couple hundred thousand men in arms now, trained
and equipped to fight the good fight. They're now fighting alongside Americans
in Baghdad and elsewhere. There are--lots of the country that are in pretty good shape.
He did admit, “We've got to get it right in Baghdad. That's the task at hand. I think we
can do it.” But he rejected the
suggestion that the administration’s new “surge” strategy is a response to a
failing old strategy. “A failed strategy?”
he said. “Let's see, we didn't fail when we got rid of Saddam. We didn't fail
when we held elections. We didn't fail when we got a constitution written.
Those are all success stories.”
The Vice-President should now travel to Iraq and bring the good news to the many Iraqis who must have missed the fruits of these wonderful “success-stories.”
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