Dick Cheney, the Vice-President of the United States of America, gets his from friends. Or so it seems, given his reaction to the news that the British troops are going to start withdrawing from Basra and the surrounding area in southern Iraq:
But in an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said the move was actually good news and a sign of progress in Iraq.
"Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," Cheney told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
"In fact, I talked to a friend just the other day who had driven to Baghdad down to Basra, seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels," Cheney said.
I feel very comforted by this. So comforted that I'm not quite sure what to make of the almost simultaneous comment by Iraq's vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, about how insurgents and militia members might be leaving Baghdad for?... you guessed it, Basra:
Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, warned that advance publicity on the security operation had given Shiite militias time to flee the city for bases elsewhere in the country.
``I have information that numerous of their leaders are now in Basra and other southern provinces in safe havens,'' he told Al-Arabiya television. ``I believe that those who were behind the bloodshed and the chaos should be pursued and criminals must face justice.''
For some odd reason I want to walk away after this post while singing "Singing In The Rain".