Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that he hopes President Barack Obama lays out a “forceful, bold and immediate strategy to defeat ISIS" tonight, but Cheney's remarks at a conservative think-tank were more focused on suggesting that the president does not understand the severity of the threat.
"Our president must understand we are at war and that we must do what it takes, for as long as it takes, to win," Cheney said during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, adding the threat from ISIS is "far more dangerous that the administration has been willing to admit."
Cheney, a key architect of the war in Iraq, painted Obama’s foreign policy as an effort to avoid tough choices rather than address threats head-on.
“So often President Obama responds to crises by announcing all the things that he will not do,” he said. “And here again we can only hope that pattern ends tonight.”
The former vice president's remarks come a day after he addressed congressional Republicans about foreign policy, prompting reminders from Democrats about Cheney's role in in the unpopular war in Iraq.
"Dick Cheney is more responsible than anyone else for the worst foreign policy decision in the history of the country," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Senate floor Wednesday.
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