Cheney sticks by remark that Iraq insurgency is in its "last throes"

US Vice President Dick Cheney refused to take back his remark that Iraq's insurgency was in its "last throes" despite the latest surge of violence in the occupied country.

Cheney said in an interview with CNN that political milestones and the training of Iraqi troops proved that progress was being made, and hit out at critics of the Bush administration's conduct of the post-war period.

"If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a, you know, a violent period, the throes of a revolution," Cheney said.

"The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand if we're successful at accomplishing our objective, standing up a democracy in Iraq, that that's a huge defeat for them.

"They'll do everything they can to stop it."

Cheney compared the current stage of the Iraq conflict to the waning days of World War II when axis powers fought a fierce rearguard actions against the allies at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 and and Okinawa in 1945.

Cheney, You're comparing Iraq to the wrong war, try Vietnam!

Semper Fi