Vice President Cheney today rejected a demand from Iraq's
minority Sunni Muslim leaders that a timetable be established for the
withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. troops there. But he indicated that the
administration is pleased with the early outlines of a new Iraqi
government and believes that the two major religious factions in the
country will be able to work together to form a strong
government. "Once we've completed the mission, we've stood up an
effective Iraqi government and they have security forces in place to be
able to take care of their own, then we're out of there . . . ," Cheney
said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. "But the test for our
departure has to come with respect to when we've completed the mission,
not some artificial deadline we might decide on now as part of a
political compromise. And I think we'll find that, in fact, that will
be the view that will prevail in the new Iraqi government. [more]
Sunnis demand US exit timetable as price for rejoining mainstream [more]