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 News from Around the Americas | November 2005 
Cheney Shifts Attack on War Critics
 Adam Entous - Reuters
| | Vice President Cheney addresses the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, November 21, 2005. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) |
Washington - Vice President Dick Cheney denied on Monday that the administration was trying to stifle dissent by lashing out at Iraq war critics, but said he drew the line at what he called shameless charges by some Democrats that the president distorted prewar intelligence.
"This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate," Cheney said.
Cheney, who was a leading voice in the run-up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion in warning of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda, said the administration presented the best available intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs.
Cheney said it had not been Washington's responsibility to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before launching the 2003 Iraq invasion but it was up to Saddam to show that he did not have them.
Cheney acknowledged that "flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight." But Cheney added: "Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false."
Cheney's comments were the latest in an acrimonious political debate in Washington over the progress and origins of the war at a time when President George W. Bush's popularity rating is at its lowest.
The Bush administration is facing waning public support for the war amid mounting U.S. troop casualties and calls by some critics to bring home the more than 150,000 U.S. troops.
Last week by Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a decorated former U.S. Marine, drew fierce a response including accusations of cowardice from some Republicans after advocating a swift pull-out of U.S. troops.
Blistering Attack
Last Wednesday Cheney unleashed a blistering attack on critics of the war, but on Monday he followed the lead of President George W. Bush in toning down the rhetoric. He said he welcomed a public airing of dissenting views about the war and an "entirely legitimate discussion" about changing policy.
While Cheney said he disagreed with Murtha he offered an olive branch to the Pennsylvania lawmaker, calling him a friend, a "good man" and "a patriot."
"I do not believe it is wrong to criticize the war on terror or any aspect thereof. Disagreement, argument and debate and the essence of democracy and none of us should want it any other way," Cheney said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
"Nobody is saying we should not be having this discussion or that you cannot reexamine a decision made by the president and the Congress some years ago."
But he added: "What is not legitimate and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."
Many war critics have said the Bush administration selected and cited intelligence reports in a way that heightened the perceived threat from Saddam and exaggerated his links with al Qaeda and other groups engaged in terrorist attacks.
Administration officials have asserted that Democrats in Congress had access to the same intelligence as top White House officials -- a point critics dispute -- and noted many of them voted in 2002 to authorize Bush to use military force.
"Although our coalition has not found WMD stockpiles in Iraq, I repeat that we never had the burden of proof. Saddam Hussein did. We operated on the best available intelligence gathered over a period of years and within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police," Cheney said. |
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