CNN

Vice President Dick Cheney

NEW YORK (CNN) - Vice President Cheney is out with another upbeat assessment on the war in Iraq.

In an interview with “The Politico”, Cheney predicts that when he and President Bush leave office in January 2009, it will be clear that:

“We have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”

Before you start picking out a home site in Baghdad remember this is coming from the same man who before the war started said the U.S. Would be “greeted as liberators” and the fight would possibly last “weeks rather than months” . And then in June of 2005 said the insurgency in Iraq was “in the last throes”.

In the Politico interview, Cheney also says he’s been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress, particularly senior leaders like Congressmen John Dingell and John Murtha. He says they “march to the tune of (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi” to an extreme degree. When asked if these men had lost their spines, Cheney said quote “they are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

Pelosi dismissed the comments and called on the White House to spend its time compromising with Congress.

Here’s my question to you: Is Vice President Cheney right to predict that when he and President Bush leave office a self-governing democracy will be firmly established in Iraq?

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