I wish I agreed with Dick Cheney but I don't. How could I? He, along with the rest of the conservative establishment, still considers Iraq a "success," adding in remarks last night:

Iraq has the potential to be a strong, democratic ally in the war on terrorism, and an example of economic and democratic reform in the heart of the Middle East.

Is he kidding?

The former vice president also endorses the current PC, See-No-Islam "COIN" strategy in Afghanistan -- and, further, claims Bush administration credit for it. Quote:

Recently, President Obama’s advisors have decided that it’s easier to blame the Bush Administration than support our troops. This weekend they leveled a charge that cannot go unanswered. The President’s chief of staff claimed that the Bush Administration hadn’t asked any tough questions about Afghanistan, and he complained that the Obama Administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.

In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that repeatedly went into the country, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision – a good one, I think – and sent a commander into the field to implement it.

This should come as zero surprise, given that the strategy executed in Iraq under Gen. David Petraeus and the strategy executed in Afghanistan by Gen. Stanley McChrystal come from the same disastrously la-la land playbook -- the Petraeus-authored Counterinsurgency Field Manual, a manual Ralph Peters recently told me "is a snake that needs to be killed dead."

At this point, it's either it, or us.