Flanked by American flags and howitzers, Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday defended the war in Iraq and a policy of pre-emptive attack against criticism from Democrats at their national convention.
With President Bush staying out of the political fray at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, Cheney was on the West Coast to rally fellow Republicans for the November election and counter charges by Democrats meeting in Boston.
“Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness,” Cheney said at Camp Pendleton on the Southern California coast.
Cheney said Americans were safer and he stood by prewar characterizations of Iraq as a threat despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and new warnings by Cheney and other administration officials that another major terrorist attack may be coming.
On the first day of their four-day convention, Democrats drew a stark contrast between Bush and Democratic presidential rival John Kerry.
Former President Carter and former Vice President Al Gore launched the first salvos Monday, accusing Bush and Cheney of destroying U.S. credibility around the world.
Carter said the United States “cannot lead if our leaders mislead” and that Bush’s agenda had polarized the country.
Former President Clinton said Bush had squandered the good will of the world after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Cheney: U.S. had the right to attack
Cheney countered that the United States had the right to attack foes before it was attacked and described the invasion of Iraq in terms of the wider U.S.-led war on terror. Democrats say the 2003 Iraq war was a costly diversion from the war on terror.
“Having seen the devastation caused by 19 men armed with knives, box cutters and boarding passes, we awakened to a possibility even more lethal,” Cheney said.
“President Bush is determined to remove threats before they arrive instead of simply awaiting for another attack on our country. So America acted to end the regime of Saddam Hussein,” Cheney said.
Despite violence in Iraq and the threat of new al Qaeda attacks in the United States, Cheney told the 2,500 Marines and sailors: “Sixteen months ago, Iraq was a gathering threat to the United States and the civilized world. Now it is a rising democracy, an ally in the war on terror and the American people are safer for it,” Cheney said.
As part of his campaign pitch for Bush, Cheney quoted selectively from the final report of the Sept. 11 commission about the “lethal” threat posed by al Qaeda.
The commission criticized the Bush administration -- along with the Clinton administration -- for failing to grasp or effectively combat the threat posed by al Qaeda and recommended a radical shake-up of U.S. intelligence.
Cheney was a critic of the commission’s work behind-the-scenes, but he praised its final report as “very well done as government documents go.”
