Iraq A Successful Endeavor. Dick Cheney

On the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, President Bush declared that the United States is on the way to winning the war.

He made this stupefying pronouncement in the safe confines of the Pentagon, where it’s unacceptable to question the commander-in-chief, no matter how dense or self-deluded he might be.

If Bush had dared to make the same speech in a public town hall, among civilians, the reception would have been chillier. According to almost every opinion poll, about two-thirds of all Americans now stand opposed to the war in Iraq.

When reminded last week of this statistic, Vice President Dick Cheney responded: “So?”

Bush sent Cheney to Baghdad to mark the dubious anniversary of their costly, misbegotten adventure. What better way to buoy the spirits of the 160,000 U.S. soldiers who are now stuck in Iraq — a surprise visit by The Man Who’s Never Been Right.

True to form, the vice president repeated his dark assertion that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had close ties with al Qaeda, a claim discredited and rejected by every U.S. intelligence agency.

Cheney also described the American effort to bring stability and democracy to Iraq as ”a successful endeavor.” Compared to what — the landing of the Hindenburg?