Cheney Defends Iraq War

The Washington Post reported January 25^th that Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration's accomplishments in Iraq during a televised interview with CNN. According to the report, Cheney said that "enormous successes" had been achieved while complaining about the efforts of critics and media members "...to write off this effort or declare it a failure." The report cited Cheney as saying they were "...undermining U.S. troops in a war zone..." and described the Vice President's tone as more confrontational than the one put forth by the President during the State of the Union speech.

The Post reported Cheney as saying that although there were problems in Iraq, the situation was not terrible and that congressional opposition would not stop the addition of over 20,000 troops to the war zone. According to the report, Cheney said the efforts by Congress to pass a nonbinding resolution would "validate the terrorists' strategy."

The report went on to state that Cheney said "The pressure is from some quarters to get out of Iraq. If we were to do that, we would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task, that we don't have the stomach for the fight."

Speaking about the opposition to the troop surge that is growing in Congress, the report quotes Cheney as saying, "It won't stop us. And it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops."

When asked by CNN interviewer Wolf Blitzer is the Bush administration's credibility had been damaged by Iraq, Cheney is quoted as responding by saying, "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."

Mr. Cheney went on: "What we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do," the Post says. "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. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone."

The report went on to state that Mr. Cheney thought Blitzer was advocating retreat. Quoting Mr. Cheney, the report says, "What you're recommending, or at least what you seem to believe the right course is, is to bail out."

Information for this article was obtained from "Defending Iraq War, Defiant Cheney Cites 'Enormous Successes,'" by Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer, published January 25, 2007 in the Washington Post.