The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, on Monday rejected as ”corrupt and shameless” allegations that Americans were misled over the justification for the Iraq war, as the Bush administration defended itself against calls for a withdrawal.
Those calls have become bolder as the death toll has risen. On Monday, police in Baquba said two Iraqi children and two adults were killed when a US patrol opened fire on their car. Critics argue that such incidents are fuelling the insurgency.
Cheney said calls for a quick withdrawal were built on a ”dangerous illusion” that it would satisfy the US’s jihadist enemies. But in a sign of the administration’s nervousness over the national mood, the vice-president stopped short of questioning the patriotism of those demanding withdrawal.
The vice-president tried to make a distinction between its critics. He called a truce in the war of words with those who wanted a quick withdrawal, but escalated the attack on those who accuse senior officials of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Noting that ”a few politicians are suggesting these brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood”, Cheney said: ”This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety.”
At the same time, he attempted to limit the damage caused by last week’s personal attacks on a senior Democrat who had called for a rapid withdrawal.
John Murtha, a hawkish congressman who stunned colleagues by calling for a troop pull-out over six months, was accused by the White House of siding with the ”extreme liberal wing” of his party and lambasted as a coward by a junior Republican politician on Friday, triggering uproar in Congress. Murtha is a former marine and decorated Vietnam veteran with close links with the US military.
On Monday, Cheney went out of his way to call Murtha a ”friend” and ”a good man, a marine and a patriot”.
”Nobody is saying we should not be having this discussion,” the vice-president said, echoing comments made by Bush on his tour of Asia over the weekend.
”People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq,” Bush said. He also described Murtha as ”a fine man, a good man”.
The change in tactics reflected an acknowledgment that the White House had stumbled in its attempt to slow momentum towards a quick withdrawal by targeting its advocates rather than their arguments. Cheney attempted to refute those arguments in his speech on Monday.
”It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilised world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone,” Cheney said, challenging ”those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions”.
The principal question was whether the US would be ”better off or worse off” with al-Qaeda leaders running Iraq.
The administration’s policy is to pull troops out only after Iraqi forces have shown they are capable of leading the fight against the insurgents.
US commanders are reportedly talking of troop reductions of 30 000 to 40 000 from the current level of 160 000, but only if the election due on December 15 goes well and the violence subsides. Administration officials believe a hasty withdrawal could trigger an implosion in Iraq and possible civil war.
The continuing row over prewar intelligence on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and the mounting death toll, has put the Bush administration on the defensive and blocked attempts to revive its domestic policy agenda, built around pension and tax reform. – Guardian Unlimited Â