Earlier this week, in an interview with the Politico, Dick Cheney basically declared victory in Iraq -- again. In that coded way in which he speaks, Cheney made it sound like it's all over but the clean up.
Yet, the commander on the ground in Iraq, who, as we know is venerated by the Bush administration, threw cold water on Cheney's puffery:
“There’s nobody in uniform who is doing victory dances in the end zone,” Gen Petraeus said at Camp Victory, Baghdad, before meeting Robert Gates, US defence secretary.Petraeus also sang the praises of Al-Sadr according to the Washington Post. Al Sadr has cloes ties to Cheney's sworn enemy Iran. And, earlier this year, Cheney told Chris Wallace that the U.S. was prepared to go into Sadr City after Al-Sadr:
WALLACE: Let me ask you a specific question about that. If U.S. forces want to go into Sadr City and take on Muqtada al-Sadr, can you pledge to the American people we'll do that regardless of what Maliki says?Why is Petraeus openly challenging Cheney? And, what are the ramifications for the General?
CHENEY: I believe we'll be able to do whatever we need to do in order to get a handle on the security situation there, and Prime Minister Maliki will be directly involved in it.
This is just as much his program as it is ours. He's the one, ultimately, who has to perform, in terms of the capabilities of Iraqi forces.
So I think we do have the right understanding. Time will tell. We'll have to wait and see what happens here.
