BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of reducing violence in Iraq on Wednesday, but both pledged their governments would continue working together toward a solution.
The Iraqi leader said he and Cheney discussed "practical steps ... to support our efforts working on both the security front as well as the domestic political issues." He and Cheney made brief remarks to reporters, with al-Maliki speaking through an interpreter.
Al-Maliki is coming under increasing pressure from Washington to demonstrate progress in easing sectarian violence, and Cheney’s unannounced visit to Iraq was depicted by U.S. officials as an attempt to press al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders to do more to achieve reconciliation among factions.
So Cheney made a surprised visit to Baghdad to essentially tell Maliki that he needs to do more to stop the ethnic violence and civil war that is ripping his country apart. No big surprise there.
But now let's take a look at Cheney's message to Maliki:
Cheney’s message with Iraqi leaders, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters, was to be: "We’ve all got challenges together. We’ve got to pull together. We’ve got to get this work done. It’s game time."
It's game time? It's game time? If the Bush administration considers the war now to be game time, then what do they call the past four years and the 3,381 Americans killed and 24,314 Americans wounded--a practice scrimmage?
But it gets so much better here. For not only is it game time for the Bush administration on Iraq, but the head coach of the Bush team knows just the right offensive moves in order to win--attack the press. According to this Wall Street Journal story:
Once safely ensconced in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, however, Cheney appeared to reserve his toughest language for his normal target – the press. Cheney held a lot of photo ops with key Iraqi leaders like Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, but was adamant about not taking questions. At one point, Cheney emphasized to the assembled journalists that “this is just a photo spray.” Later in the day, as reporters filed into an embassy conference room for another photo of Cheney they overheard him tell his staff “then we kick the press out.”
As usual, Coach Cheney knows exactly who his opponent is in this war--it is not the Iraqi insurgents or the al Qaeda terrorists. No, it is the press! And Coach Cheney is focusing his team on kicking the press out!
So how is the Iraq war going for Coach Cheney, now that he has kicked the press out? Check out this MSNBC story:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that Iraq remains a dangerous place, a point underscored by a thunderous explosion that rattled windows in the U.S. Embassy where he spent most of the day.
[....]
Cheney spoke less than an hour after an explosion could be heard in the U.S. Embassy where he spent most of the day. Windows rattled and reporters covering the vice president were briefly moved to a more secure area.
Said Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride: “His meeting was not disturbed and he was not moved” to another area.
The blast appeared to strike in the vicinity of the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, but that could not immediately be confirmed. Witnesses said it appeared to have been fired from the mostly Shiite areas on the east side of the Tigris River.
[....]
On the morning of Cheney's visit, a truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry in the relatively peaceful Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, officials said. Kurdish officials blamed al-Qaida linked insurgents for the devastating strike -- the first major attack to hit the regional capital in more than three years.
Looking at these three stories here, I'm getting the impression that we're now at the two minute warning here for the game, we're down by four touchdowns, the ball is deep in our own territory on the one yardline, and Coach Cheney has decided that it is now game time and he's sending his offense against our cheerleaders and the team mascot.
No comments:
Post a Comment