Friday, June 24

Tricky Dick or Baghdad Bob?

Us naughty troop-hating liberals have been giving Dick Cheney quite a few kicks in the ass lately for his sky-high optimism about how the Iraqi insurgency is in its "last throes" and Baghdad is no more dangerous right now than Epcot. A guy at Editor & Publisher made the point that his rampant optimism sounds a lot like the bizarre statements of another figure who's played a big role in Gulf War II -- Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf, a/k/a "Baghdad Bob," the Iraqi information minister who became famous for declaring that Iraq was kicking the U.S.'s ass even as shit was exploding right behind him. See if you can figure out which of these statements were uttered by Cheney and which were said by Sahaf:

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

"When you look back at World War II, the toughest battle, at the most difficult battles, both in Europe and in the Pacific, occurred just a few months before the end . . . And I see this as a similar situation."

"No, I am not scared, and neither should you be."

"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected."

"They think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win."

"I blame Al-Jazeera."

"We're giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn't accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted."

"Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say."

"They are achieving nothing; they are suffering from casualties. Those casualties are increasing, not decreasing."

"Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly."

The answers can be found here (link via Atrios).

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