Gen. Abizaid's testimony confirmed the Iraq insurgency is far from its 'last throes.' Still, the vice president shows persistent disdain for that truth.The Roanoke Times
Dick Cheney, meet reality.
The vice president's long-overdue introduction to reality came courtesy of Gen. John P. Abizaid's testimony Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee that directly contradicted Cheney's rosy assessment of an Iraq insurgency in its "last throes." Abizaid made it clear that the insurgency was every bit as strong as it was six months ago and that foreign fighters were still joining the battle. A few days before, Abizaid told the Houston Chronicle that the United States was in for an indefinite fight that would "cost in blood and treasure."
Cheney remained as resistant to such assessments as he was to giving any consideration prior to the war that his belief that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators in Iraq might be wrong. "If you look at what the dictionary says about 'throes,' it can be a, you know, a violent period, the throes of a revolution," Cheney said on CNN after Abizaid's testimony....
Unfortunately, they mostly prepared for the wrong war. From the beginning, the real focus of the Bush administration was on Iraq, not Afghanistan, whose ruling Taliban had provided a safe harbor and training ground for al-Qaida....
Calls for Rove to apologize for his remarks miss the broader point. Though his comments inexcusably ignored the shared outrage and national unity that marked the months after 9/11, the real apology should come from Cheney, President Bush and the other architects of the disastrous Iraq war.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials%5C26107.html
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