Download Download (h/t Logan for vids, which include his "big stick" comments against the Democratic leadership)

In October 2004, as the administration’s Iraq policy was failing on all fronts, Dick Cheney bragged that Iraq was “a remarkable success story.” In June 2005, in this midst of devastating violence in Iraq, Cheney bragged that Iraq “will be an enormous success story.” And now, in December 2007, Cheney is convinced that Iraq “will be an enormous success story.”

Vice President Cheney today predicted Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office, calling the current U.S. surge strategy “a remarkable success story” that will be studied for years to come. [...] “I am fairly confident we’ll have [Iraq] in a good place, where we’ll be able to look back on it and say, ‘That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq,’” Cheney told us in a 40-minute White House interview.

Cheney, who has been wrong about every aspect of Iraq policy since 1992, added that by the middle of 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.”

Asked if all of these remarkable accomplishments can be achieved in just 14 months, Cheney replied, “Yes, sir.”

And since the Vice President has a great track record of making reasonable, accurate predictions about Iraq, there’s certainly no reason to laugh, mock, and point at Cheney as some kind of misguided, mendacious fool, right? Oh wait....