Cheney Says White House Will Be Flexible on Iraq
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 — -- Vice President Dick Cheney today asserted the Bush administration's willingness to reevaluate its tactics in Iraq.
"Defeating terrorists in Iraq is essential to overcoming the advance of extremism in the broader Middle East," he said. "We'll be flexible. We'll do all we can to adapt to conditions on the ground. We'll make every change needed to do the job."
Cheney's comments echo recent statements by President Bush and top U.S. commanders in Iraq.
His remarks come one week after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld submitted his resignation, sparking a buzz in Washington that the Bush Administration will soon overhaul its policy in Iraq in the wake last week's Democratic takeover of Congress.
Speaking at the annual Federalist Society Convention in Washington, the vice president said that the U.S. must remain on the offensive, and asserted that what he termed the "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive action was making America safer.
"We'll win this war by staying on the offensive -- carrying the fight to the enemy, going after them one by one if necessary, going after those who could equip them with even more dangerous technologies," Cheney said.
He chided those who call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying that retreat would not make the country more secure, but instead would make it less so.
Cheney added that failing to see the war through would only embolden the enemy.
"To get out before the job is done would convince the terrorists, once again, that free nations will change our polices, forsake our friends and abandon our interest whenever we are confronted with violence and blackmail," he said. "They [the terrorists] would simply draw up another set of demands, and instruct Americans to act as they direct or face further acts of murder."
Cheney defended the tools the Bush administration says help the United States in the war on terror.
He cited specifically the Patriot Act, passed less than a month after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in an attempt to bridge communications gaps between the intelligence and law enforcement communities. The Patriot Act has since come under fire by critics who say it puts America's civil liberties at risk. The vice president today flatly denied this.
Cheney also defended Bush's decision to permit a warrantless wiretapping program by the National Security Agency, which he said was developed to root out terrorist communications.
He criticized a recent decision by a federal judge in Michigan to halt the program, calling the decision "judicial overreaching," which he said tied the president's hands in fighting the war on terror.
Cheney also spoke of reforms in the government since the attacks on Sept. 11. When speaking of reforms in the Pentagon, Cheney credited Rumsfeld with overseeing the improvements.
"All of this vital work has been carried out under the steady hand of one of the greatest public servants of the age, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld," he said, drawing resounding applause from the largely conservative audience.