‘I’ve forgotten how to make a happy face.’

Now it’s official: the default action for any member of the Bush administration is to tell a lie. Vice President Dick Cheney demonstrated this during an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, when he said that Britain’s recently announced pullout from Iraq is good news for the US:

“Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well,” Cheney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

“In fact, I talked to a friend just the other day who had driven to Baghdad down to Basra, seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels,” Cheney said.

I don’t know which is less believable: the idea that someone took a Sunday drive from Basra to Baghdad and thought that the security situation was good, or the idea that Dick Cheney has a friend.

In related news, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reacted to reports that Lithuania and Denmark will also be leaving Iraq by saying that “the coalition remains intact.” Maybe she’s talking about the coalition that includes the US, CACI, Triple Canopy, Custer Battles, and the Badr Brigades.
***

During the same interview, Cheney claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) apologized for saying “nasty things” about him. What McCain said was that Dick Cheney helped formulate our Iraq policy. That’s about as nasty a thing as you can say about anyone.

Reached for comment, McCain did not deny running over to Cheney with his tail between his legs, but said that he stands by his earlier criticism of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. McCain also went out on a limb and declared that the British pullout is not good news for American occupation forces. You really have to admire a man who will step up and boldly declare what is obvious to everyone.

***

Cheney unintentionally invoked the specter of Vietnam when he said that the goal in Iraq is to have US troops “return with honor“:

No matter how much the White House dreads it, the Bush administration can’t seem to escape the analogy of Iraq as another Vietnam.

The latest echo of that other unpopular war four decades past came from Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a visit to Japan on Wednesday that the United States wants to finish its mission in Iraq and have its troops “return with honor.”

Cheney’s words underscored a recent shift in President George W. Bush’s stated justification for staying in Iraq — not so much for the once-vaunted goal of military victory but to avert a nightmare scenario they say would be unleashed should the United States leave.

Bush’s increasing emphasis on the threat to U.S. credibility from any retreat from Iraq evokes to some extent the face-saving arguments put forth by the Johnson and Nixon administrations during the Vietnam war. Nixon, in particular, repeatedly pledged to achieve “peace with honor.”

‘Is this it? Do I look happy?’

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Middle East, Bush Administration, Lies, Iraq, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.