Baghdad, Iraq – Violence and civil unrest surged across Iraq on Sunday as Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq, his first time there in more than a decade, praising what he called the “remarkable” turnout by voters in nationwide elections Thursday and telling troops that the country had “turned the corner.”
Shrouded in fortified compounds and shuttled between venues by squadrons of helicopters, Cheney came on a day that underscored the deep economic and security challenges the country still faces.
The government sparked angry protests in several cities by announcing a steep increase in fuel prices, currently the lowest in the Middle East and among the lowest in the world. And insurgents ended a lull in violence during the election period by launching a string of attacks across the country that killed more than 30 people, including 20 truck drivers and crew members on a highway north of Baghdad.
Among the strongest proponents of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq – and of current American policy here – Cheney sat for an hour-long briefing in Baghdad by the U.S. ambassador and top U.S. generals.
Cheney then met briefly with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Cheney spoke to troops at Al Asad Air Base in the western province of Anbar, the heart of Iraq’s Sunni Arab-led insurgency.
“I know most of you have heard the political debates that have been going on back home,” Cheney said. “You’ve heard some prominent voices advocating a sudden withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. … But they are wrong. The only way to lose this fight is to quit. And that is not an option.”
Afterward, he took questions from a group of 30 troops in a large tent.
“From our perspective, we don’t see much as far as gains,” Marine Cpl. Bradley Warren told Cheney. “I was wondering what it looks like from the big side of the mountain – how Iraq’s looking.”
“Well, Iraq’s looking good,” Cheney responded. “It’s hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through. Part of it is that what we’re doing here, obviously, takes time. From our perspective, looking back, as I say, to a year and a half ago, I think it’s remarkable progress. I think we’ve turned the corner, if you will. I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we’ll see that the year ’05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq.”
Cheney also discussed the possibility of U.S. forces eventually withdrawing “to a few locations” in Iraq, which would “reduce the total number of personnel we need here.”
“I think you will see changes in our deployment patterns probably within this next year,” he said.
