Bush and Cheney Chide Democrats on Iraq Deadline

Why does anyone still listen to what Bush and Cheney have to say about the Iraq war? They have been wrong with almost every pronouncement they have made for the last four years and yet still their comments are reported as if they are tablets of truth being handed down from the mound.

They are now rounding on the Democrat attempt to fix a withdrawal timetable to the Iraq war spending bill, a timetable that is approved by a majority of Iraqis and a majority of Americans.

“Instead of fashioning a bill I could sign, the Democratic leaders chose to further delay funding our troops, and they chose to make a political statement,” Mr. Bush said Tuesday morning before leaving for New York. “That’s their right. But it is wrong for our troops and it’s wrong for our country.”

Mr. Cheney was even tougher as he spoke to reporters after a private weekly lunch for Republican senators. He lashed out at Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, who delivered stinging comments of his own on Monday, portraying Mr. Bush as being in denial about the war and saying Mr. Cheney had tarnished his own office.

“What’s most troubling about Senator Reid’s comments yesterday is his defeatism,” said Mr. Cheney. “And the timetable legislation that he is now pursuing would guarantee defeat. Maybe it is a political calculation.”

I notice that Cheney is now subtly attempting to link American defeat in Iraq as something that has transpired because of the Democrats as opposed to four years of a mismanaged war fought with too few troops as a result of Republican intransigence.

And it's also interesting to notice that Bush continues to insist on the lie that the Democrats are responsible for his decision to veto any bill that includes a timetable for withdrawal.

However, the Democrats - buoyed by public support - don't look like they are going to back down on this. And why should they? The war is lost. How many more young men and women of the US and Iraq need to die before Bush and Cheney and their ilk will accept this fact?

While acknowledging that Mr. Bush would send the bill back, they said they were determined to force him to formally reject legislation that provides more money for the military than sought by the White House, but puts conditions on its use.

“For the first time, the president will have to face up, will have to be accountable for this war in Iraq,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said. “And he doesn’t want to face that reality.”

Bush is despatching Petraeus to Capitol Hill in an attempt to persuade lawmakers to allow more time for the troop increase in Iraq to work, but he's unlikely to change many minds which are, by now, almost certainly made up.

Bush and Cheney are also ignoring the fact that the Baker report also recommended a withdrawal of combat units by the end of the first quarter of 2008, about the same time envisioned in the legislation.

So there's really nothing very controversial about what the Democrats are proposing, as a bipartisan study group - led by James Baker - has already recommended precisely what the Democrats are proposing.

“The president sends out his attack dog often,” said Mr. Reid. “That’s also known as Dick Cheney.”

Defending the legislation up for a vote this week, he said, “We believe the troops should get every penny they need and we have put our money where our mouth is with supplemental appropriations, but we believe there must be a change of direction in the war in Iraq.”

Mr. Reid said he was not going to engage in a tit-for-tat with the vice president. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating,” Mr. Reid said.

And therein lies the rub. Bush and Cheney represent extremist positions that go against the wishes of both the American and the Iraqi populations, and they do so whilst both of them have personal approval ratings that are shockingly low.

And yet both these men continue to frame their arguments within the bounds of "What the American people want". That's simply intellectual dishonesty of the worst kind.

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Tags: Bush, Cheney, Iraq war, Iraq war funding, troop withdrawal, the Baker report, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid