WP: Bush Team Stands Firm on Iraq Policy

[kskiska]

Cheney Defends U.S. Actions In Bid to Revive Public Support

By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus

Monday, September 15, 2003; Page A01

Vice President Cheney, keynoting an aggressive defense by the Bush administration of its Iraq policy, rejected the full range of criticism of U.S. actions in Iraq and said there is no reason to "think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed."

In a rare television interview yesterday, Cheney expanded on an effort by President Bush and top aides to argue that there should be no further changes in Iraq policy despite bipartisan and international calls for different approaches. He declared "major success, major progress" in Iraq, said most of the country is "stable and quiet" and asserted that Americans are viewed as "liberators" there.

(snip)

Cheney's rare appearance -- he almost never takes questions from reporters and had not granted such a television interview in six months -- comes as the public is expressing less faith in Bush and his Iraq policies. Cheney added his voice to other administration officials such as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Bush himself to revive public support, weakened by rising fatalities, a failure to find illegal weapons stockpiles in Iraq and a higher-than-expected request from Bush for an additional $87 billion for military operations and rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Administration officials said they think that any acknowledgment of a mistake only encourages critics, as when Bush included a suspect allegation in his State of the Union address that Hussein sought nuclear material in Africa -- despite CIA warnings not to cite the information. Cheney's vigorous defense of the administration's actions went beyond the current debate to Bush's record on jobs, tax cuts and the deficit. He said it would be a "serious mistake" to freeze the tax cuts for the top 1 percent of earners to pay for the Iraq war, as some Democrats have urged.

(snip)

Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. "I don't want to speculate," he said, adding that Sept. 11 is "over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10734-2003Sep14.html

[mhr]

1. Tell This to the Families That Lost Loved Ones

'Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. "I don't want to speculate," he said, adding that Sept. 11 is "over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us."'

[Evanstondem]

3. Cheney should be roasted for saying that

As you point out, it is unbelievably rude to the families and all those who care about those who died on 9/11.

[kskiska]

5. When asked about Willie Horton

after defeating Dukakis, Poppy said, "That's history."

[uhhuh]

12. We can put it behind us

Well dick, I guess you should get together with the chimp and everyone elese in the administration that contiues to use it as a justification for everything and tell them to "get over it."

[Maple]

2. And just as soon as anyone

can figure out what that policy actually IS...we'll get back to you.

[Don_G]

4. The Policies Are

Whatever his 2000 selection contributers think it should be plus the Carlyle Group and Haliburton.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. If the Republicans give Cheney's request any credence...

...I will reach the conclusion that Repubs, as children, were horsewhipped into submission by autocratic fathers and never fully developed to their full potential.

[peterh]

7. 9/11 is over and done with???

I guess when it comes to anything that can be viewed in less than stellar terms for Bushco, i.e., air quality, intel leading up to event and who really knew before and faulty connections to Iraq, etc., etc,….I guess to Cheney, there’s nothing to talk about. Until the repug convention next year…..then 9/11 is everything. Fuckoff cheney…you bother me.

[Newsjock]

8. A wonderful article! Tackles the lies point by point

Kudos to Milbank and Pincus. Go read the article if you haven't already done so. Point by point, they take Cheney's words and show how he LIED. Just one example:

On the subject of Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, which have not been discovered, Cheney said he still believes chemical weapons are "buried inside civilian infrastructure." Of the weapons search, Cheney said, "We've got a very good man now in charge of the operation, David Kay, who used to run UNSCOM."

Kay, who is heading the 1,200-person search group, did not in fact run UNSCOM, the U.N. Special Commission that directed inspections in Iraq from 1991 through 1998; he was for one year the chief inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which handled the nuclear portion of those investigations for UNSCOM.

There's lots more where that came from.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. This is a lot of "Tough Straight Talk"

This kind of no nonsense tough straight talk has worked for Cheney
in the board room for years. However, he isn't dealing with abstract made up facts and figures that appear in annual reports anymore, and some kind of dopey employee workforce. He
is dealing with a world full of pissed off Islamic Fundamentalists who don't care about him in the least.

He can say whatever he wants, but inside he knows he is fighting a war he can't win. He knows if the military were to ever leave there, civil wars and chaos immediately follow. He knows that this country has finally bitten off more than it can ever chew.

He knows that 1000's of jobs are being lost every day to 3rd world cheap labor countries.

He also knows that he can never admit any of this.

[IndianaGreen]

10. "Bush Team Stands Firm..." by taking Viagra!

That would be the only accurate headline. They are drawing their wagons in a circle! The bunker mentality, as characterized in its early stages by faux bravado, is beginning to take hold.

[fabius]

11. Cheney is an evil, evil man.

So I will propose a new moniker for him. "Prince of Darkness". The secret puppeteer of the whistle-ass.

The man lies so thoroughly and voluminously it just staggers the imagination.

Iraq probably did perpetrate 9-11 and Iraq was the geographical center of all terrorism perpetrated against the US, but Saudi Arabia probably had nothing to do with it :wtf:

Aaaaargh.

The WP is holding his feet to the fire though. i hope a lot of REpugs read this. I'd be really EMBARRASSED if a Democratic administration was lying so blatantly.

[jamesinca]

13. Well Mr Dick C. this is what I have to say about this

<SNIP>

Cheney also seemed to broaden the intelligence on other alleged al Qaeda connections with Hussein, saying, "The Iraqi government or the Iraqi intelligence service had a relationship with al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s." Up to now, administration officials and CIA documents have said there had been eight meetings, primarily in the early 1990s, when bin Laden was in Sudan.

It has been shown that those meetings of people stopped very abruptly, that Hussein and bin-Laden never met and these were nothing more than Husseins people playing phone tag with bin-Ladens people.
It was speculated in the inteligence report that they could not work out their differences and broke off the relationship. When Chenney says early '90's he means pre Gulf War and GHW Bush.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

<SNIP>
Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. "I don't want to speculate," he said, adding that Sept. 11 is "over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us."


"over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us." Then why do we have Patriot day on 9/11, why did Bush have a moment of prayer and talk about it on 9/11, why was there a ceremony at ground zero on 9/11, why is there a monument to those at ground zero, why is there a California monument to 9/11? Here is why Dick, it is the same reason that we have a monument to the USS Arizona out in Pearl Harbor, same reason that we have a monument called Arlington National Cemetary, same reason there is a monument of Iwo Jima, same reason that there is a Vietnam Memorial, same reason there is a monument in Europe at the Nazi concentration camps. Because we don't get over it, we don't forget it and those who do not know their history are dammed to reliving it.

[Manix]

14. Russert was way too easy on him!

Cheney got away often without rebuttal on obvious points.

[radfringe]

15. ...think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed."

Vice President Cheney, keynoting an aggressive defense by the Bush administration of its Iraq policy, rejected the full range of criticism of U.S. actions in Iraq and said there is no reason to "think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed."

what strategy??? the strategy to siphon off money into his buddies pockets with no-bid contracts???