Prometheus 6   

Obviously we must consider whether senility is an issue

Cheney Calls Iraq Invasion Critical to War on Terror

By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press Writer
Friday, October 10, 2003; 11:20 AM

Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States still faces enemies that could inflict hundreds of thousands of American deaths in a single day, and he defended the Iraq invasion as a critical strike against such terror.

"We could not accept the grave danger of Saddam Hussein and his allies turning weapons of mass destruction against us or our friends and allies," Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation on Friday.

Cheney struck back at criticism of the Iraq war that has built over the months since Bush declared major combat over on May 1. His speech picked up where President Bush left off a day earlier, when the president told listeners in Portsmouth, N.H., "The challenges we face today cannot be met with timid actions or bitter words." [P6: True. So we must be bold in action and forthright in presenting the case against this administration.]

Yet Cheney offered no new evidence that Saddam posed an imminent threat as the administration claimed before the war. The vice president's 25-minute speech also largely dismissed the continuing violence in Iraq, the lack of broad international collaboration, and the failure so far to find any weapons of mass destruction, mentioning only in passing the "difficulties we knew would occur." [P6: See the title of this post]

The vice president said, "The ultimate nightmare could bring devastation to our country on as scale we have never experienced." [P6: True. So we must be bold in action and forthright in presenting the case against this administration.]

"Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in a single day of war," Cheney said. [P6: See the title of this post]

"Remember what we saw on the morning of 9-11. And knowing the nature of these enemies, we have as clear a responsibility as could ever fall to government," Cheney said. "We must do everything in our power to keep terrorists from ever acquiring weapons of mass destruction."[P6: But we're not saying Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks, oh, no…]

Cheney did not offer new evidence that there was any link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11 attacks. But he cast the Iraq invasion as part of the war on terror. He contrasted the Bush administration's efforts to combat terrorism with what he called previous presidents' "ad hoc" attempts.

"President Bush declined the course of inaction, and the results are there to see," Cheney said. [P6: True. So we must be bold in action and forthright in presenting the case against this administration.]