Saudi funeral perked up by Cheney cheer

The Oregonian ^ | August 10, 2005 | David Sarasohn

[crazyhorse691]

Last week, Dick Cheney took a break from running the world to take on one of the traditional duties of a vice president: going to funerals. At the burial of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the vice president could reassure a vital Arab (and OPEC) ally that, however things looked, everything was under control next door in Iraq -- possibly even repeating his June confidence that "I think they're clearly in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

The problem, of course, is that the Arab world also gets CNN, meaning that the Saudis have now tracked three years of Cheney's pronouncements on Iraq. It's a record of resounding wrongness, repeated wrongness, confident wrongness and almost spectacular wrongness.

Following the trail of the vice president's statements on the Middle East, the Saudis must have been relieved that he made it to the right funeral.

It's a good time for a summer rerun of Cheney's positions on Iraq, because he's still shaping U.S. policy there, still with the same serene certainty. Developments may bring disaster but never doubt, and the Saudis could read the real message brought on Air Force Two:

When Dick Cheney tells you the insurgents are "clearly in the last throes," duck.

Before the war, nobody was more certain than the vice president about what Saddam Hussein had.

"Simply stated," Cheney explained in August 2002, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." A week later he added, "We do know, with absolute certainty, that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon."

Just before the war, Cheney made it even simpler: "We believe that Saddam has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons" -- although six months later he admitted, "Yeah, I did misspeak."

Still, Cheney forecast a war so easy it would hardly matter, declaring just before the invasion, "We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly . . . in weeks rather than months." As the vice president had told veterans in Tennessee the year before, the streets of Baghdad and Basra would "erupt in joy" with the American appearance.

He got the "erupt" part right. And after Saddam was toppled, Cheney explained in April 2003 that Iraq should cover most of its own redevelopment costs, because Iraq's oil production would be at 3 million barrels a day, "hopefully by the end of the year."

He didn't say which year -- but it wasn't that one, or the next one, or this one, when Iraqi daily production is still close to 2 million barrels.

But by September 2003, Cheney was even more certain about costs: "Iraq sits on 10 percent of the world's oil reserves. . . . The fact is there are significant resources here to work with, and the notion that we're going to bear the burden of reconstruction all by ourselves, from a financial standpoint, I don't think is valid."

On that same "Meet the Press," Cheney cleared up several things. For example, he explained that the United States had, too, found weapons of mass destruction: "They're in our possession today, mobile biological facilities that can be used to produce anthrax or smallpox or whatever else you wanted to use during the course of developing the capacity for an attack."

Those trucks have actually turned out to be nothing like that. But it hardly mattered, because, as the vice president declared cheerfully about the development of postwar Iraq, "I think there has been fairly significant success in putting Iraq back together again . . . and certainly wouldn't lead me to suggest that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed."

It's that unshakeable certainty that things are going fine that Cheney always brings to the issue of Iraq. As he explained on Fox News in February 2005, as American casualties and Iraqi car bombs shot up: "I don't think, at this stage, that there's anything like justification for hand-wringing or concern on the part of Americans that somehow they're going to produce a result we won't like."

So there's no reason for concern.

The vice president may be constantly wrong on Iraq, but at least his endless optimism must have made him a heartening figure to have at a funeral.

And there's no sign his certainty is in its last throes.

Of course, neither is anything else about Iraq.

David Sarasohn, associate editor of The Oregonian, can be reached at 503-221-8523 or davidsarasohn@news.oregonian.com.

[crazyhorse691]

Gotta like this editors cagey style of using a Royal Funeral to launch an attack on Vice President Cheney. David Sarasohn reminds me of the demented pessimist who replied when asked if the glass was half full or half empty, "The glass is not of the appropiate opaquness to make such a factual distinction blah, blah, blah.

[Sax]

Hurray!! Three cheers for David Sarasohn! Let's take him down to the coffee nook for a frappaccino and we can stop to hug a tree along the way. Hurray!! Take that Cheney!

[cotton1706]

Did Cheney wear a ski parka to this event?

[popdonnelly]

I would perk up if some of these damn papers went out of business. I want information, not someone's cutesie opinions.

[sydbas]

Last week, Dick Cheney took a break from running the world to take on one of the traditional duties of a vice president: going to funerals.

The usual backdoor slap at President Bush.

[SantosLHalper]

The problem, of course, is that the Arab world also gets CNN, meaning that the Saudis have now tracked three years of Cheney's pronouncements on Iraq. It's a record of resounding wrongness, repeated wrongness, confident wrongness and almost spectacular wrongness.

Yes CNN is very big with the terrorists, after all they both have the same agenda.

[advance_copy]

David Sarasohn: The people who are trying to kill American troops are lucky to have such a skilled propagandist working for them at the Oregonian. Zarqawi says thanks!

[Fudd Fan]

"running the world"

WTH? Jeez

[TheBattman]

I think someone forgot to add a "PROJECTILE VOMIT ALERT"....

[Tax-chick]

Where are the pictures? There's a rule that you have to include pictures of the Vice President!

[SuziQ]

I wonder if Mr. Sarasohn also disbelieved x42, Teddy the Swimmer and John 'effin' Kerry when they said the same things Cheney has said about Sadaam's WMD program.

[snugs]

Where are the pictures? There's a rule that you have to include pictures of the Vice President!

Lets put that right then LOL

Vice President Dick Cheney walks with newly crowned King Abdullah, former President George H.W. Bush, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell during a retreat at King Abdullah's Farm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Friday, August 5, 2005, following the death of Abdullah's half-brother King Fahd who passed away August 1, 2005.

Vice President Dick Cheney meets with newly crowned King Abdullah during a retreat at King Abdullah's Farm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Friday, August 5, 2005, following the death of his half-brother King Fahd who passed away August 1, 2005.

[Tax-chick]

Thanks very much! Mr. Cheney is looking a bit older in these, although still young compared to old President Bush.

[snugs]

Here is a nice one of the VP

Vice President Dick Cheney speaks with newly crowned King Abdullah during a retreat at King Abdullah's Farm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Friday, August 5, 2005, following the death of his half-brother King Fahd who passed away August 1, 2005

[Tax-chick]

That's very good. He looks much more distinguished than Abdullah!

[tet68]

You really got to give it to the Saudi's interior decorators
that furniture is so exquisite, so refined, so so 1950s!
Crikey, we had better looking stuff than that in our basement!

[snugs]

The decoy at the VP own house and the official resisdence looks far more modern in comparison

[SendShaqtoIraq]

Them's some big dogs.