Cheney Makes Questionable Reference When Speaking To AIPAC

On Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and once again made the case for the benefits of the Iraq War:

CHENEY: One leader in Lebanon said: “When I saw the Iraqi people voting, it was the start of a new Arab world…The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.”

The “leader in Lebanon” is Walid Jumblatt, a man who in 2004 was quoted celebrating the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and a year earlier was quoted calling President Bush a "mad emperor," and saying the true axis of evil was "oil and Jews."

What an odd reference point for a speech to AIPAC. You have to wonder what the audience would have thought if Cheney had quoted Jumblatt by name.

Why would Cheney quote Jumblatt? Apparently because he is the only Lebanese leader to say something that could be used to support the administration argument that "a liberated Iraq can ... transform that vital region."

Jumblatt gave his quote to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius last month. Soon thereafter, variations of the quote were used by a wide variety of right-of-center pundits, including David Brooks and Daniel Schorr.

But is it the viewpoint of most Lebanese? “I’ve never heard it from anybody except Walid Jumblatt," Jamil Mroue, editor-in-chief of Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper, told The New Republic.

Maybe the administration feels Jumblatt has changed his ways. Or maybe Jumblatt qualifies as a Middle East "moderate" -- a frequent reference point during the recent Dubai Ports World brouhaha. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Jumblatt last month, ignoring his reported comments about the Bush Administration, including describing her as "oil-colored."

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

Daniel Schorr is not a right-wing pundit.

I just needed to clarify that.

Thanks.

it says right-of-center

Ick.

wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall (or the horse) when Jumblatt was introduced to Rice.

(mimic Fred Armison's voice): "I was just kidding!!!"

That still does NOTHING to mitigate the fact that they LIED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and manipulated intelligence to start an unjustified war against a soveriegn nation! That is the ONLY issue!

Maybe he really said "oil-covered".