Posted on 11/16/2001 1:10:45 PM PST by america-rules
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) fired a broadside at critics of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Wednesday, saying they had been ``dead wrong'' in sniping at the pace of a 39-day bombing against the Taliban.
Boasting that the Taliban were in flight ``virtually all over the country,'' he chided analysts who accused the Pentagon (news - web sites) of not dropping more bombs or putting more troops into Afghanistan.
``It's nice, at a moment like this, to be able to remind them (critics) that a lot of what they put out over the course of the last few weeks was just dead wrong,'' Cheney told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites) in a speech.
He was not specific about the critics but said it included military pundits, the Washington press and ``talking heads'' on television.
Praising Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, the vice president said that ''we've got some great people running the operation. And the results are there for all to see.''
Cheney cautioned that the war was far from over in Afghanistan despite the collapse in many areas of military forces of the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban, who have ruled the country for five years.
``This is a very good beginning to what's likely to be a long struggle,'' he said.
``They (the Taliban) have lost their control over a major part of Afghanistan. They've lost control of most of the cities. Many of their forces have been killed, captured or fled to the hills,'' he said.
But in another apparent jab at critics, he noted that President Bush (news - web sites) had vowed to end support by the Taliban and other countries worldwide for ``terrorist'' networks such as al Qaeda guerrillas of fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), accused of masterminding Sept. 11 attacks on America.
``I think this morning, in the fate that has befallen the Taliban, there is proof positive,'' the vice president said.
``If anybody has any questions about whether or not we're determined to carry through on that threat, all they have to do is go visit Afghanistan today and interview members of the Taliban -- if they can find any.''
"Noting" would have been less pejorative than "Boasting".
Just an oversight, no doubt.
They both LOVE this country and tell it like it is!!!! They are no BS proof.
I salute these fine patriots
There's a very refreshing candor here -- and it's probably making things far safer for us. Bush has not wavered in his bluntness, his actions match his words, and his choices of battle have been mostly correct.
Compared to the weasle-speak of the sink-meister -- which probably brought us to this in the first place -- it's an unbelievable change. Osama's probably more'n a little surprised. But now nobody else will be.
BTW: sure would be interesting to know what the Special Ops guys are doing elsewhere in the world, now that everybody's watching Afghanistan....
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