heidi | Actual Analysis (Reply)

This is something I haven't seen anywhere yet.

Here's what Cheney said last night about PM Allawi of Iraq:

Our most important ally in the war on terror, in Iraq specifically, is Prime Minister Allawi. He came recently and addressed a joint session of Congress that I presided over with the speaker of the House.

And John Kerry rushed out immediately after his speech was over with, where he came and he thanked America for our contributions and our sacrifice and pledged to hold those elections in January, went out and demeaned him, criticized him, challenged his credibility.

And as you can see in the transcript of Allawi's speech two weeks ago in front of Congress (you know, the speech that was cowritten by someone from the Bush campaign), Allawi said:

[W]e are succeeding in Iraq.
It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding... When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence.

So Kerry said, regarding Allawi's speech:

The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operation and the troops all tell a different story... I think the prime minister is, obviously, contradicting his own statement when he said terrorists are pouring into the country

And he got slammed for it. He was raked over the coals by Bush in the last debate, by Cheney the next day and again last night, by Republicans around the world.

But here's what Allawi said yesterday in his first speech before the interim National Assembly in Iraq regarding the country's instability - he said it's a: