Cheney Says U.S. Will Be In Iraq For "The Foreseeable Future"

This morning, on Fox News, Vice President Dick Cheney said "we can provide that help by putting additional forces in for the foreseeable future."

Later in the interview, the host, Chris Wallace tried to get Cheney to tell him what the Administration will do if Maliki doesn't cooperate. Wallace reminded Cheney that Bush said " it's not an open-ended commitment"

Cheney's response was "We're focused on making this plan work."

Wasn't that the problem with this war in the first place? They didn't plan for anything other than the initial attack and were taken by "surprise" that there was an insurgency.

Later in the interview Cheney made the bizarre statement that "This is an existential conflict".

What does that mean???

Then Cheney said something that is even more frightening: "It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years."

Then they had this exchange wherein Cheney called the elections "public opinion polls":

WALLACE: Iraq was a big issue in the November election. I want you to take a look at some numbers from the election. According to the National Exit Poll, 67 percent said the war was either very or extremely important to their vote, and only 17 percent supported sending in more troops. By taking the policy you have, haven't you, Mr. Vice President, ignored the express will of the American people in the November election?

CHENEY: Well, Chris, this president, and I don't think any president worth his salt, can afford to make decisions of this magnitude according to the polls. The polls change day by day...

WALLACE: Well, this was an election, sir.

CHENEY: Polls change day by day, week by week. I think the vast majority of Americans want the right outcome in Iraq. The challenge for us is to be able to provide that. But you cannot simply stick your finger up in the wind and say, "Gee, public opinion's against; we'd better quit."

That is part and parcel of the underlying fundamental strategy that our adversaries believe afflicts the United States. They are convinced that the current debate in the Congress, that the election campaign last fall, all of that, is evidence that they're right when they say the United States doesn't have the stomach for the fight in this long war against terror. They believe it. They look at past evidence of it: in Lebanon in '83 and Somalia in '93, Vietnam before that.

They're convinced that the United States will, in fact, pack it in and go home if they just kill enough of us. They can't beat us in a stand-up fight, but they think they can break our will. And if we have a president who looks at the polls and sees the polls are going south and concludes, "Oh, my goodness, we have to quit," all it will do is validate the Al Qaeda view of the world.

It's exactly the wrong thing to do. This president does not make policy based on public opinion polls; he should not. It's absolutely essential here that we get it right.

Gee. I didn't realize I was merely participating in a poll last November. Did you?