The Ugly Truth

He can yet again change tactics. "Or Mr. Bush can reassess the strategy itself, perhaps listening to those advisers -- including some members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the advisory commission charged with coming up with new strategies for Iraq -- who say that he needs to redefine the 'victory' that he again on Thursday declared was his goal.

"One official providing advice to the president noted on Thursday that while Mr. Bush still insists his goal is an Iraq that 'can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself,' he has already dropped most references to creating a flourishing democracy in the heart of the Middle East. . . .

"But whatever choices he makes . . . they will be forced by a series of events, in Iraq and at home, that now seems largely out of Mr. Bush's control, in Iraq and at home."

Cheney's World

No one -- but no one -- appears to be in a deeper state of denial than Vice President Cheney. Consider two interviews Cheney granted by satellite to local television reporters in hotly contested congressional districts yesterday.

Here's the transcript of his interview with WSBT-TV's Kirk Mason in South Bend, Indiana. Here's the video .

"Q Are you saying that you believe fighting in Iraq has prevented terrorist attacks on American soil? And if so, why, since there has not been a direct connection between al Qaeda and Iraq established?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the fact of the matter is there are connections. Mr. Zarqawi, who was the lead terrorist in Iraq for three years, fled there after we went into Afghanistan. He was there before we ever went into Iraq. The sectarian violence that we see now, in part, has been stimulated by the fact of al Qaeda attacks intended to try to create conflict between Shia and Sunni."

But Cheney's implication that an Iraq-al Qaeda link existed before the invasion is specious.

As Jonathan Weisman wrote in The Washington Post last month: "A declassified report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence revealed that . . . [f]ar from aligning himself with al-Qaeda and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Hussein repeatedly rebuffed al-Qaeda's overtures and tried to capture Zarqawi, the report said."

And here's the transcript of Cheney's interview with WFLA-TV's Bob Hite in Tampa.

"Q . . . Of course, what is getting a lot of attention, almost all the attention is the war in Iraq. The plan to have put more troops into Baghdad to suppress the violence there seems to have backfired in that it seems to only be providing more targets for the terrorists.

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the fact is that we've had more troops engaged in Baghdad because that's where the biggest threat is. Most of the country is in relatively good shape at this stage."