"Vice president seeks to encourage reconciliation during surprise visit."

Now if one has read the newspapers and followed the mainstream media, one realizes that the Sunni's, Shiites and Kurds are very busy committing atrocities against each other on a routine basis. The mainly Shiite government has been killing Sunnis, the Sunnis have been bombing Shiites, and the Kurds have been gleefully killing 'em both, often under the auspices of the US who tries to pretend the Kurds have a loyalty to Iraq the nation rather than simply themselves. Hatred and resentments have built up. The US fostered the persecution of the Sunnis, after all Saddam was a Sunni.

It's kinda like the US and al-Qaeda. Now imagine what would happen to a US politician who suggested that the US forgive al-Qaeda and forget 9-11, that the world is too small for such hatreds, and that we all need to just get along. Smile, and be happy. Let bygones be bygones, no sense crying over spilt milk.

Imagine the conservative blogs, the screams about never forgetting, "These colors never run", surrender, cowardice, disrespecting the victims and their families, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Imagine the hoots and hollars if France or Germany suggested the US do that.

But that's exactly what Cheney is suggesting the Iraqis do. Forget the atrocities, forget the people who have had holes drilled in their heads, feet, hands, legs, body, before they were killed. Ignore the people who have been beheaded, shot in the back of the head, tortured, mutilated, blown up. Just forget all that. Isn't suggesting a way to do that, just telling them one more time.

I have to admit that statements like his help make sense of American foreign policy. There just isn't understanding of human nature or acceptance of reality in it. It's truly a "Fantasy Foreign Policy" game, with folks acting out of what they'd like the world to be rather than what is. But it's being played with real lives. Not the player's lives.

Arf