Gwen Ifill Misrepresents Dick Cheney (Update)

Update to previous entry. The Kossacks picked up this story and ran. Apparently not reading / listening to what Cheney actually said, but nevertheless wasting no time in saying how great Hagel was for attacking something that (apparently unknown to Hagel at the time) Cheney never said.

What Cheney actually said, from the transcript:

But the biggest problem we face right now, is the danger than the United States will validate the terrorist's strategy, that in fact what will happen here, with all of the debate over whether or not we ought to stay in Iraq, where the pressure is from some quarters to get out of Iraq, if we were to do that, we would simply validate the terrorist's strategy, that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task -- that we don't have the stomach for the fight. That's the biggest threat.

And then:

Now, the critics have not suggested a policy. They haven't put anything in place. All they want to do, all they've recommended is to redeploy or to withdraw our forces. The fact is we can complete the task in Iraq. And we're going to do it. We've got Petraeus, General Petraeus taking over. It is a good strategy. It will work. But we have to have the stomach to finish the task.

It's pretty clear that Cheney did not say, as Ifill said, and as Hagel criticized (with the Kossacks cheering from the sidelines), "that people do not have the stomach to complete this mission."

He did not say, or imply, that anyone does not have the stomach for it, even if they want us to pull out. He implied, rather, that the country as a whole, should it pull out now, would show itself to be lacking in stomach. Two very different things. Cheney was speaking only of the country as a whole, and what pulling out would say about us in the future, should we pull out. He was not speaking about anyone individually or collectively at present.