Baghdead - Shit or Bust! Official ... says Cheney

Wolf Blitzer on CNN on January 24, 2007, (video links) talked to Vice President Dick Cheney who explained why the invasion of Iraq had been such a monumentally huge success.

"The world is much safer today because of it,"

"There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government."

He failed to mention however that , as predicted, civil war (or whatever you want to call it) has started and the citizens of this wonderful Democracy are kidnapping, torturing, raping, killing, bombing, shooting each other at a fast clip....that is unless US /UK troops haven't bombed, shot them already... 100 a day dead , 200 on a bad day in Baghdead, 40 a day in Mosul, which even Saddam couldn't manage.(Times 16/1/07 - UN says 34,000 civilians died violently in 2006) - not forgetting the mass exodus of 2/3 Mn educated middle class from the land of their birth.

Asked to describe the biggest mistake made by U.S. war planners, Cheney said,

"I think we underestimated the extent to which 30 years of Saddam's rule had really hammered the population, especially the Shia population, into submissiveness. It's very hard for them to stand up and take responsibility, in part because anybody who's done that in the past have had their heads chopped off."

Which ranks pretty badly against kidnap, torture, rape, killing, bombing, shooting by State sponsored Shia Police / State Security killer squads, ad hoc Saudi funded Sunni killer squads, al Quaeda (?) insurgents, private mercenary armies, peshmurgas ... not to mention the liberating forces of US/UK and the Coalition of the Damned.

Blitzer asked Cheney about the growing resistance in the Congress to the Administration's strategy in Iraq.

BLITZER: What if the Senate passes a resolution saying, This is not good idea? Will that stop you?

CHENEY: It won't stop us. It would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops. As General Petraeus said yesterday -- he was asked by Joe Lieberman, among others, in his testimony about this notion that somehow the Senate could vote overwhelmingly for him, send him on his new assignment and then pass a resolution at the same time, say, "But we don't agree with the mission you've been given." (Cheney's daughter Liz, (see pic) in a WAPO OpEd"Retreat isn't an Option" - boosting her Dad on Tuesday, said of Joe L. he was ..."the only national Democrat showing any courage on this issue.")

BLITZER: You're moving forward, no matter what the Congress does?

CHENEY: We are moving forward. We are moving forward. The Congress has control over the purse strings. They have the right, obviously, if they want, to cut off funding. .... the President's made his decision ..... we need to get the job done. I think General Petraeus can do it. I think our troops can do it. I think it's far too soon for the talking heads on television to conclude that ..." it's impossible to do, it's not going to work, it can't possibly succeed."

VP Cheney has been doing an awful lot of thinking ....let's hope for the sake of the President's approval rating (28% and sinking fast) and to the confusion of the Talking Heads of TV he's right.

At Defense Secretary Robert Gates's first Pentagon news conference on Friday , he was askedfor his reaction to the debate in Congress over the effect of such a nonbinding resolution that Blitzer had quizzed Cheney about..

"It's pretty clear that a resolution that in effect says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries,"

Would someone please tell us who the ,"enemy and our adversaries" are ?

It's beginning to sound like the American voters.

Read Attytood re "Cheney's State of delusion Address" for more...