“Last Throes” Revisited | The Ashford Zone

"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected.”
“We are in control, they are not in control of anything, they don’t even control themselves!”
“They are becoming hysterical. This is the result of frustration.”
“They are achieving nothing; they are suffering from casualties. Those casualties are increasing, not decreasing."

Quotes from Dick Cheney? Nope, but I can understand why you might think so. (The answer is below the fold)

Is there any military commander who will back up Cheney’s (let’s be honest) lie about the Iraq insurgency being in its “last throes”?

The top American commander for the Middle East said Thursday that the insurgency in Iraq had not diminished, seeming to contradict statements by Vice President Dick Cheney in recent days that the insurgents were in their “last throes.”

Though he declined during his Congressional testimony to comment directly on Mr. Cheney’s statements, the commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, said that more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq and that the insurgency’s “overall strength is about the same” as it was six months ago.

[Source]

You know, a week or so ago, the Bush Administration announced that it was going to begin a “renewed public-relations push” to combat the fact that the majority of Americans, including an increasing number of Republicans in Congress, oppose Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. Regrettably, it seems the Bush idea of “public relations” is to lie about the facts on the ground (Cheney’s “last throes"), liberal-bash (Rove), or to tell America that our commander-in-chief thinks about Iraq every single day. I’m not sure, PR-wise, that’s the best strategy for the White House.

UPDATE: “Last throes”? Bite me, Cheney. This is real.

The speaker is former Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (under Saddam)—better known as “Baghdad Bob”—from the spring of 2003 [Source]

P.S.: More from the Dickhole Memory Hole: