Senator: Iraq is 'success story' (Sen. Mitch McConnell)

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Senator: Iraq is 'success story'

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Sen. Mitch McConnell, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said Thursday that the U.S. mission in Iraq is "already a success story" and chided Democrats for discussing when "we ought to cut and run."

In a stout defense of President Bush, McConnell lumped the Iraq conflict into the broader war on terror, and said U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq helped protect America from further attacks by killing, capturing or disrupting terrorists.

Speaking to the Kentucky Farm Bureau convention, McConnell, of Louisville, said the transition in Iraq has been "rather smooth" - noting that in less than three years Iraq went from the fall of Saddam Hussein to parliamentary elections planned for next week. By contrast, 11 years elapsed in the United States from the time of the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, he said. "I think that Iraq is already a success story, and I think it's going to end up being remembered by historians as a huge success story," he said.

Democrat Mike Weaver, who is running for Congress in Kentucky's 2nd District, said such declarations of success are premature. Weaver said Iraq is plagued by high unemployment, crumbling infrastructure and sectarian conflict that could turn into civil war.