lily
03-17-2008, 10:53 PM
Since him and McCain are going to the same place, it would have saved some money if they flew together. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23667595/)
In push for political unity, Cheney visits Iraq
Unannounced visit comes before fifth anniversary of U.S. invasion
updated 3:50 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 17, 2008
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney opened a new U.S. push for political
unity in Iraq on an unannounced visit Monday, just ahead of the fifth
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
Cheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into
the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and
diplomatic officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It is Cheney’s
third vice presidential trip to Iraq where 160,000 American troops are
deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.
Cheney’s first meeting was a classified briefing with U.S. Ambassador Ryan
Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq who
met him at the airport. Crocker and Petraeus are scheduled to travel to
Washington next month to give a status report on the war.
For security reasons, Cheney officials divulged few details about the vice
president’s schedule and asked reporters not to report on his location until
he had moved on to another. Cheney was expected to make stops throughout the
country, speak to troops and spend time with other Iraqi leaders.
Middle East trip
Oman was scheduled to be the first stop on Cheney’s 10-day trip to the
Middle East, but on Sunday night, he left Air Force Two parked on a tarmac
in England and boarded a C-17 for the final five and a half hours of the
13-hour flight to the Iraqi capital.
The future of Iraq will be discussed in his closed-door talks with leaders
in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Turkey.
Cheney’s discussions at each stop also will touch on Iran’s nuclear program
and its desire for greater influence in the region, high oil prices and the
pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that President Bush wants to
see before he leaves office.
Cheney, who is traveling with his wife, Lynne, and daughter, Liz Cheney,
last visited Iraq in May 2007 before the president’s buildup of more than
30,000 additional U.S. troops was in full gear. Bush dispatched the extra
troops to reduce violence so Iraqi politicians could forge agreements that
would bring minority Sunni Arabs into the government and weaken or end the
insurgency.
Security has improved markedly since last summer when the last of the five
Army brigades arrived in Iraq to complete the military buildup, but Iraqi
politicians are still in gridlock.
Before and after troop surge
Cheney advisers say the vice president will highlight the reduction in
violence and praise the fragile Iraqi government for passing some
legislation aimed at national unity. In short, Cheney will compare and
contrast Iraq before and after the increase in troops. He’ll tell Iraqi
leaders that they are on the right track and have made strides, but that now
is the time to do more.
The Iraqis do not yet have a law for sharing the nation’s oil wealth among
the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, a law that the Bush administration believes
will trigger multinational energy companies to invest in exploration and
production in Iraq.
Also unfinished is a plan for new provincial elections. Iraq’s presidential
council, which must give its nod to laws passed by the Iraqi parliament,
rejected a plan for new elections last month, shipping it back to the
legislature.
The rejection, a setback to the U.S. campaign for national reconciliation,
came despite Cheney’s last-minute phone call to the main holdout on the
three-member panel: Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite. Cheney was
expected to speak with Abdul-Mahdi and the other two members of the council,
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi,
while in Iraq.
In push for political unity, Cheney visits Iraq
Unannounced visit comes before fifth anniversary of U.S. invasion
updated 3:50 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 17, 2008
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney opened a new U.S. push for political
unity in Iraq on an unannounced visit Monday, just ahead of the fifth
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
Cheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into
the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and
diplomatic officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It is Cheney’s
third vice presidential trip to Iraq where 160,000 American troops are
deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.
Cheney’s first meeting was a classified briefing with U.S. Ambassador Ryan
Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq who
met him at the airport. Crocker and Petraeus are scheduled to travel to
Washington next month to give a status report on the war.
For security reasons, Cheney officials divulged few details about the vice
president’s schedule and asked reporters not to report on his location until
he had moved on to another. Cheney was expected to make stops throughout the
country, speak to troops and spend time with other Iraqi leaders.
Middle East trip
Oman was scheduled to be the first stop on Cheney’s 10-day trip to the
Middle East, but on Sunday night, he left Air Force Two parked on a tarmac
in England and boarded a C-17 for the final five and a half hours of the
13-hour flight to the Iraqi capital.
The future of Iraq will be discussed in his closed-door talks with leaders
in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Turkey.
Cheney’s discussions at each stop also will touch on Iran’s nuclear program
and its desire for greater influence in the region, high oil prices and the
pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that President Bush wants to
see before he leaves office.
Cheney, who is traveling with his wife, Lynne, and daughter, Liz Cheney,
last visited Iraq in May 2007 before the president’s buildup of more than
30,000 additional U.S. troops was in full gear. Bush dispatched the extra
troops to reduce violence so Iraqi politicians could forge agreements that
would bring minority Sunni Arabs into the government and weaken or end the
insurgency.
Security has improved markedly since last summer when the last of the five
Army brigades arrived in Iraq to complete the military buildup, but Iraqi
politicians are still in gridlock.
Before and after troop surge
Cheney advisers say the vice president will highlight the reduction in
violence and praise the fragile Iraqi government for passing some
legislation aimed at national unity. In short, Cheney will compare and
contrast Iraq before and after the increase in troops. He’ll tell Iraqi
leaders that they are on the right track and have made strides, but that now
is the time to do more.
The Iraqis do not yet have a law for sharing the nation’s oil wealth among
the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, a law that the Bush administration believes
will trigger multinational energy companies to invest in exploration and
production in Iraq.
Also unfinished is a plan for new provincial elections. Iraq’s presidential
council, which must give its nod to laws passed by the Iraqi parliament,
rejected a plan for new elections last month, shipping it back to the
legislature.
The rejection, a setback to the U.S. campaign for national reconciliation,
came despite Cheney’s last-minute phone call to the main holdout on the
three-member panel: Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite. Cheney was
expected to speak with Abdul-Mahdi and the other two members of the council,
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi,
while in Iraq.