[QUOTE]WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday dismissed as "hogwash" the suggestion that blunders may have hurt the administration's credibility on Iraq and led members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to question President Bush's plan to send more troops to Baghdad.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, carried out a day after President Bush delivered his State of the Union address, the vice president was told that some Republicans in Congress "are now seriously questioning your credibility, because of the blunders and the failures."

To that Cheney responded: "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee defied President Bush on Wednesday and approved a resolution declaring that sending more troops to Iraq is "not in the national interest."

"We better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, one of the harshest Republican critics of the plan. (Full story)

Cheney said the administration is committed to moving ahead with its plan to send more troops to secure Baghdad, even if Congress passes a resolution in opposition.

"It won't stop us," he said. "And it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops."

If U.S. forces were to pull out of Iraq, "We would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task ... that we don't have the stomach for the fight. That's the biggest threat."

Cheney added, "The notion that somehow the effort hasn't been worth it or that we shouldn't go ahead and complete the task is just dead wrong."

Bush's Iraq plan also calls for U.S. forces to help Iraq better equip its military and accelerate training of Iraqi troops. The Iraqi government plans to take full responsibility for the country's security by November.

Bush asked Congress and the public to give his plan to help the Iraqi government end sectarian violence "a chance to work."

"We went into this largely united," the president said during Tuesday's speech. "And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure." (Full story)

Two-thirds of the people surveyed in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released on the eve of the speech oppose the plan. The poll was conducted Friday through Sunday and was based on telephone interviews with 1,008 adult Americans. It has a sampling error of plus-or-minus 3 points.

Cheney said the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein was the right move.

"The world is much safer today because of it," the vice president said. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed, his sons are dead, his government is gone. And the world is better off for it."

Cheney added that had Hussein been allowed to remain at the helm of Iraq, "he would, at this point, be engaged in a nuclear arms race with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, his blood enemy next door in Iran."

Cheney acknowledged "ongoing problems" in Iraq, where an insurgency is blamed for dozens of Iraqi deaths each day and more than 3,000 U.S. military fatalities over the course of the nearly four-year-old war.

"There's problems, ongoing problems. But we have, in fact, accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime, and there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off," Cheney said.

He added, "We still have more work to do to get a handle on the security situation, and the president's put a plan in place to do that."

Asked to describe the biggest mistake made by U.S. war planners, Cheney said: "I think we underestimated the extent to which 30 years of Saddam's rule had really hammered the population, especially the Shia population, into submissiveness. It's very hard for them to stand up and take responsibility, in part because anybody who's done that in the past have had their heads chopped off."

Asked about the pregnancy of his daughter Mary, who is in a relationship with a female partner, Cheney expressed irritation with his questioner.

"I'm delighted I'm about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf," he said. "And, obviously, I think the world of both my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question."
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Is there anything that ever comes out of this mans mouth that doesn't sound like "If you don't agree with us you are the enemy" or "He looked like a quail?"

[QUOTE]Cheney said the administration is committed to moving ahead with its plan to send more troops to secure Baghdad, even if Congress passes a resolution in opposition.[/QUOTE]

So even if Congress says no you will say "**** Democracy" and do it anyway? Makes you think if we even live in a Democracy sometimes huh.

[QUOTE]Cheney said the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein was the right move.

"The world is much safer today because of it," the vice president said. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed, his sons are dead, his government is gone. And the world is better off for it."[/QUOTE]

Aside from the increased violence in reigons due to Saddam being killed?

[QUOTE]Cheney added that had Hussein been allowed to remain at the helm of Iraq, "he would, at this point, be engaged in a nuclear arms race with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, his blood enemy next door in Iran."[/QUOTE]

You mean like we were with Russia? And you have no idea if he would of done that or not, you are just playing the "Terrorist" card again. And if they did so ****ing what? We did the same thing in the past, should someone have invaded the US and killed the President at the time because we were making Nukes to compete with Russia?

[QUOTE]He added, "We still have more work to do to get a handle on the security situation, and the president's put a plan in place to do that."[/QUOTE]

Tossing more bodies into the lions cage is not what I would call a plan there Ol' Shotgun.

[QUOTE]If U.S. forces were to pull out of Iraq, "We would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task ... that we don't have the stomach for the fight. That's the biggest threat."[/QUOTE]

So we have to stay so they don't call us names? Seriously worth risking thousands of lives for so we can keep the Macho look going on.