Reply #23: Or this --- Cheney: Iraq not in civil war, predicts success (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(When ask if he will be visiting Iraq in the near future, he said, "Hell no! It's too dangerous over there, my heart couldn't take it..." No, just kidding, I made that up)

Cheney: Iraq not in civil war, predicts success

Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:49 PM ET10

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said Iraq had not fallen into civil war despite extremist attempts to foment one, and warned that allowing the insurgents to succeed would leave the country a failed state.

Three years after the U.S. invasion, bombings, killings and kidnappings continue the unabated violence in Iraq. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on BBC television that Iraq was nearing the "point of no return" and had already plunged into sectarian civil war.

Cheney said "terrorists" like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and others were trying to stop the formation of a democratically elected government in Iraq by violence such as the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on February 22, one of the holiest Shi'ite sites.

"What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment civil war, but I don't think they've been successful," Cheney said on CBS television's "Face the Nation." Increasing public discontent over the Iraq war in which more than 2,300 American troops have died has helped push President George W. Bush's approval ratings to the lowest of his presidency.

(more at link below)

<http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-19T174904Z_01_N19198417_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA.xml>