Earlier this week on the Larry King
Show Vice President Biden said that he was very optimistic about Iraq and noted
that it’s going to be one of the great achievements of this administration.
President Obama had
previously announced a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Iraq, an issue that he campaigned on and was vigorously opposed by Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ), who advocated keeping U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely.
A few days earlier former Vice
President Cheney took to the airwaves and took credit for a withdrawal plan he
opposed, saying that Biden should be “thanking George Bush.”
Later Biden pushed back against
Cheney’s distortions on Meet the Press and Face the Nation, maintaining that
the Iraq war “wasn’t worth it.” Biden argued that the Obama administration has
managed the drawdown “very very well,” noting that the administration has acted
as a “catalyst” for political reconciliation, which was the source of violence
and the primary obstacle to a successful withdrawal. He also pointed out that
in January 2009, the Bush administration had no political plan for Iraq.
Cheney’s attempt to take credit for the
withdrawal represents a total turnaround. Last summer, Cheney expressed concern
that Iraq withdrawal will “waste all the tremendous sacrifice” of US troops.
Cheney has long fear-mongered on the implication of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
During the 2008 campaign, he even called the demands from Democrats in Congress
for a timetable for withdrawal an act of “betrayal.”
Watch Cheney and Biden interviews here:
No comments:
Post a Comment