US:US vice-president Dick Cheney claims that America has had "enormous successes" in Iraq but that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" they are undermining US troops.
In a television interview that became increasingly contentious as it went on, Mr Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted, even among President George Bush's supporters. "There's problems," in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation". And congressional opposition won't stop the US from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy".
The defiant tenor contrasted sharply with Mr Bush's state of the union address to the US Congress, when the president congratulated Democrats on their election victory, offered to work with them on a variety of domestic policies, and told sceptics of his latest Iraq plan that he respects their arguments even as he asked them to give him one more chance to win the war. Mr Bush acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq and made no effort to call it a success. In a recent interview, he said his old policy was heading for "slow failure".
Mr Cheney, on the other hand, rejected the idea there had been any failure and gave vent to the aggravation many in the White House feel as Democrats step up their attacks. As leading Democrats lace their rhetoric with words such as "blunder" and "reckless", the White House has tried to calibrate how hard to push back.
On a day when the Senate foreign relations committee passed a resolution denouncing Mr Bush's troop increase, Mr Cheney decided not to hold back.
"The pressure is from some quarters to get out of Iraq," he told CNN.
"If we were to do that, we would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task, that we don't have the stomach for the fight."
He said the administration would disregard the non-binding resolution opposing the troop increase. "It won't stop us," he said. "And it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops."
Mr Cheney has been criticised in the past for presenting what some called an overly rosy view of the situation in Iraq, most notably when he said two years ago that the insurgency was in its "last throes". The view he has now expressed seems no less positive and he sparred repeatedly with host Wolf Blitzer, telling him "you're wrong", suggesting he was embracing defeat.
When Mr Blitzer asked if the administration's credibility had been hurt by "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq, Mr Cheney interjected: "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."
In fact, Mr Cheney said, the operation in Iraq had achieved its original mission. "What we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do," he said. "The world is much safer today because of it. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone. If he were still there today," he said, "we'd have a terrible situation."
"But there is," said Mr Blitzer.
"No, there is not," Mr Cheney retorted. "There is not. There's problems - ongoing problems - but we have in fact accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime and there is a new regime in place that's been here for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off."
He added: "Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes."
Mr Cheney said Mr Blitzer was advocating retreat. "What you're recommending, or at least what you seem to believe the right course is, is to bail out."
"I'm just asking," Mr Blitzer objected.