Cheney says Iraq is going well

Cheney made a rare appearance on Larry King last night, and so far, I've seen two bits that jumped out at me.

"I think it's going to show that we will have made significant progress," Cheney said, referring to the formal assessment from the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

"The reports I'm hearing from people whose views I respect indicate that indeed the Petraeus plan is in fact producing results," the vice president said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday evening.

People whose views Cheney respects.... They've been right so many times before.

Second, in admitting that "last throes" was a mistake,

"My estimate at the time -- and it was wrong, it turned out to be incorrect -- was the fact that we were in the midst of holding three elections in Iraq, elected an interim government, then ratifying a constitution, then electing a permanent government, that they had had significant success, we'd rounded up Saddam Hussein.

"I thought there were a series of these milestones that would in fact undermine the insurgency and make it less than it was at that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust."

How serious of a misunderstanding of the "insurgency" does Dick Cheney carry even today? From the Sunni side in 2005, it had nothing to do with elections or Saddam Hussein, then, as now, the battle is about power, economics, and representation.