Cheney in Iraq: Back and Wronger Than Ever!
Just one day after John McCain's drive-by photo op in Baghdad, Vice President Cheney too made a surprise visit to Iraq. Announcing "it's good to be back," Cheney no doubt reminded Americans that John McCain represents the third term Bush agenda on Iraq. And to be sure, Dick Cheney's latest pronouncements reminded Iraqis on one of their own, former Saddam Minister of Information Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, also known as Baghdad Bob.
Wrong at almost every turn in the past, the Vice President today again showed that the magnitude of his errors is directly proportional to the weight of factual evidence contradicting them. At a press conference with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, Cheney amazingly proclaimed:
"If you reflect back on those five years, it's been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor. We've come a long way in five years and it's been well worth the effort."
Despite Cheney's unbroken history of error on everything from his August 2002 statement on Saddam's nuclear program to his sunny 2005 conclusion about an insurgency in its "last throes," one of the Vice President's sycophants trumpeted the Vice President's credibility. Former UN ambassador John Bolton incredibly argued that Dick Cheney has "enormous credibility" when it comes to Iraq:
"He's got enormous credibility there, and is able to say to them in words of one syllable that they need to get their act together."
While Bolton's praise of Cheney is nonsensical on its face, in one sense there may be a kernel of truth emdedded in his words. After a generation of Saddam and the likes of Baghdad Bob, Iraqis may simply expect duplicity and misinformation from senior government officials.
As the record shows, Dick Cheney did not disappoint them:
(For more background, consult Congressman Henry Waxman's "Iraq on the Record" archive of 237 administration misstatements and the more recent "War Card" searchable database from the Center for Public Integrity.)
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That picture is a crack-up. Good old Baghdad Bob, how I miss him.
Posted by Larry on March 17, 2008 12:41 PM