Cheney again defends the war as basically good, almost going so far as attributing any negative aspects of the occupation to inventions of the press. While he parses words and ignores America's overwhelming disapproval of the administration's incompetence, he makes it clear that issues aren't a priority but rather that definitions and broad mission statements are what we should be focusing on. I know it's easy to dismiss everything Cheney says as complete fabrication but it's important to write it and look at it, too.
Cheney form an ABCnews article
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney did not express any regret for predicting in the days before the invasion that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators or his assessment 10 months ago that the insurgency was in its "last throes." On the contrary, he said the optimistic statements "were basically accurate, reflect reality."
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Instead, Cheney described the violence as the actions of terrorists who have "reached a stage of desperation."
It was May 31, 2005 when Cheney described the insurgency in their last throes. In the ten months of data since then Coalition forces have lost 675 people, averaging 67 troops killed every month and comprising 29% of casualties so far. That is about a third of our casualties happening under a year, which is par since we are at "the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq." The reality that his statements reflect is as vague and undefined as the timetable for troop withdrawal or how progress is measured in Iraq. The problem, according to Cheney, is not the daily bombings, mass violence, Iraq opposition to continued US occupancy, and division among Iraqis as to what and who "Iraq" really is. The problem is that the media dares to report any of this.
Cheney blamed the negative perception on news coverage of the daily violence instead of the progress being made toward democracy.
"There is a constant sort of perception, if you will, that's created because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad," the vice president said. "It's not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces."
When he tells soldiers that,
"We're thinking of these families now with respect and gratitude. And this nation will always honor the sacrifices made in our defense," he really means that he respects the honor of dying silently. Focusing on the troops is a big deal when criticism is made against the poor planning of the constructs of this failed war while focusing on politics is the answer to questions about the individuals involved and the violence they endure. Calling him out on this makes you have an angry left agenda while supporting him makes you have family values. Values and truths versus agendas and facts. It doesn't have to be like this but Cheney continues to promote this dichotomy as he dismisses former interim Prime Minister Allawi's concerns that Iraq is headed into Civil War.
In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," Cheney flatly rejected a statement made earlier Sunday by Iraq's former interim prime minister that the increasing attacks killing dozens each day across his country can only be described as a civil war. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," Ayad Allawi told the British Broadcasting Corp.
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"What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment a civil war," Cheney said. "But I don't think they've been successful."
The violence in Iraq cannot be denied no matter what you don't want the press to report so the contention lies in what the violence means and may include a dispute over what constitutes a civil war.
Wikipedia defines it as "a war in which parties within the same country or empire struggle for national control of state power... Some civil wars are also categorized as revolutions when major societal restructuring is a possible outcome of the conflict. An insurgency, whether successful or not, is likely to be classified as a civil war by some historians if, and only if, organized armies fight conventional battles. Other historians state the criteria for a civil war is that there must be prolonged violence between organized factions or defined regions of a country (conventionally fought or not). In simple terms, a Civil War is a war in which a country fights another part of itself."
Cheney, then, is arguing about semantics. The violence in Iraq isn't organized enough to be considered a civil war. This is a contentious argument considering that the violence in Iraq has been unrelenting in the three years that we've been there. What are the current solutions to end the violence? Call it an insurgency, civil war, revolution, terrorism or whatever but please work to come up with a solution to end this.
Expecting Cheney to stand by his word or to give any value at all to his word is asking a lot. When the Bush was "elected" with 50.73% of the popular vote and just 2.46% more than Kerry, Cheney said "the nation responded by giving (Bush and Cheney) a mandate." Yet, when the disapproval ratings for the president drop he doesn't "think we can pay any attention to that kind of thing," since now public opinion is "the background noise" and "peaks and valleys" that makes them "take shots that (they) don't deserve." Cheney's approval rating is at 18% and the President's hovers around mid-thirties. The essence of Cheney's reasoning: "I've now been elected to a second term" so you can't tell me what to do. While Jr. thinks he is king, Cheney thinks he is president even going so far as to convince congress to give him unprecedented powers via Executive Order 13292. The traditionally ornamental role of Vice President has warped under the weak President Bush letting Cheney perform above the law whether it's failing to get a hunting license or trying to weasel out of taking responsibility for his role in the Plame spy outing. When the President said, "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is...If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of... Leaks of classified information are bad things," it was obviously political posturing otherwise Cheney would go the way of Libby.
Cheney does not respect American laws or American opinion. He does not rule according to the wishes of the people and needs to be replaced