September 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Former Vice President Dick Cheney has a great deal of respect for former Rep. Lee Hamilton, according to Cheney's new memoir," notes today's Indianapolis Star. "But Cheney didn't think much of the work of the congressionally mandated group the Indiana Democrat co-chaired in 2006 to recommend ways to improve U.S. strategy in Iraq."
Of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's work, Cheney wrote, "The only place the word 'victory' appeared in the document was in connection with the chances for an al-Qaeda victory. This was not a strategy for winning the war."
The Star's "Behind Closed Doors" column adds that the panel's report "recommended more attention to training Iraqi forces, a move toward regional diplomacy and an eventual end to U.S. combat operations. Cheney opposed the Iraq Study Group's recommendations so much that he fought to keep a reference to the group out of a national address by President George W. Bush in 2007. Cheney successfully argued to Bush that the president's 'surge strategy' was a repudiation of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations."
The column continues, "Hamilton told USA Today last year that Cheney viewed the Iraq Study Group's report as 'treacherous -- beyond that, treasonous, probably. But I also think the report is basically correct,' Hamilton said. 'Was then. Is now.' "
Access the piece at IndyStar.com.
A 1952 graduate of DePauw University, Lee H. Hamilton also co-chaired the 9/11 Commission. He and seven other members of that panel will gather September 15 for a program in Bloomington, Indiana.
Called "Mr. Integrity" by Newsweek, Hamilton is a former congressman who served 34 years in Congress who is now director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton returned to DePauw on March 15 to address "The U.S. Role in the World After Afghanistan and Iraq" in a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture. A summary including video clips can be accessed here.