Dick Cheney was on Face the Nation this morning yet again defending his’ pre-war claim that U.S. troops would be “greeted as liberators”.’ Think Progress has some video here. Cheney stubbornly contended that his past assertions “were basically accurate and reflect reality.” Whose reality? Not the reality of the average American, who polls show have lost faith in the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq. Note, that when Bush spoke about the three year anniversary of the Iraq war today, he never uttered the word ‘War’.”

Bob Schieffer asked also asked Cheney to respond to Senator Kennedy’s statement that “the Administration has been dangerously incompetent and its policy in Iraq is not worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.” Cheney used his usual line of personal attacks by claiming that “what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11mentality.” However, Kennedy was the first senator to outline a comprehensive argument against the war and has consistently challenged the Administration’s policies. Today, Cheney said that “Ted Kennedy has been wrong from the beginning.”

In response, Senator Kennedy said:

“Vice President Cheney has been consistently wrong about the war in Iraq. He’s called the shots on a dangerously incompetent strategy. He was wrong about the link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. He was wrong about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. He was wrong about America being greeted as liberators. He was wrong about the insurgency being in its last throes. Now he rejects the idea of civil war. The American people understand the clear lessons of 9-11. Al Qaeda is the greatest threat to our national security. The war in Iraq has increased support for Al Qaeda and made America more hated in the world. America is less safe because the Bush Administration lost its focus and waged a war in Iraq we never should have fought.”

Below is a fact sheet as provided to The Democratic Daily, from Senator Kennedy’s office, on what Vice President Cheney has asserted in the past and a transcript of the exchange today on CBS:

Cheney: Wrong on Iraq

Link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda
“We know that he [Saddam Hussein] has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization.” Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

Weapons of Mass Destruction
“But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Among other sources, we’ve gotten this from the firsthand testimony of defectors — including Saddam’s own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam’s direction. Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.” Veterans of Foreign Wars, August 26,2002

U.S. will be greeted as Liberators
“Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. … There is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.” Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

Last Throes
“The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” Larry King Live, May 30, 2005

Transcript – FACE THE NATION March 19, 2006

SCHIEFFER: Let me read to you what Senator Kennedy, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts and a long-time opponent of the war, said on the third anniversary.

Here’s part of his statement. He said, “It is clearer than ever that Iraq was a war we never should have fought. The administration has been dangerously incompetent, and its Iraq policy is not worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. Yet, President Bush continues to see the war through the same rose-colored glasses he’s always used. He assures the American people we are winning while Iraq’s future and the lives of our troops hang so perilously on the precipice of a new disaster.”

“Dangerously incompetent” is what he is saying. I want to give you a chance to respond.

CHENEY: Well, I would not look to Ted Kennedy for guidance and leadership on how we ought to manage national security, Bob.

I think what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11 mentality about how we ought to deal with the world and that part of the world.

We used to operate on the assumption before 9/11 that criminal attack was — a terrorist was a criminal act, a law enforcement problem.

We were hit repeatedly in the ’90s and never responded effectively.

And the terrorists came to believe not only could they strike us with impunity, but if they hit us hard enough they could change our policy, because they did in Beirut in 1983 or Mogadishu in 1993.

We changed all that on 9/11. After they hit us and killed 3,000 of our people here at home we said enough is enough. We’re going to aggressively go after them. We’ll go after the terrorists wherever we find them. We’ll go after those states that sponsor terror. We’ll go after people who can provide them with weapons of mass destruction.

We’ll use our intelligence and our military services very aggressively. And we have. We did it in Afghanistan, we’ve done it in Pakistan, we’re working with the Paks, we captured or killed hundred of Al Qaida. We’ve done it in Saudi Arabia, and obviously we’re doing it now in Iraq.

That kind of aggressive, forward-leaning strategy is one of the main reasons we haven’t been struck again since 9/11 because we’ve taken the fight to them.

Senator Kennedy’s approach would be pack your bags and go home, retreat behind your oceans and assume you can be safe.

But we learned on 9/11 that in fact what’s going on 10,000 miles away in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq can have a direct impact here in the United States when we lost 3,000 people that morning.

And we know now that the biggest threat that we face of all is isn’t just another 9/11, it’s a 9/11 where the terrorists have something like nuclear weapons or a deadly biological agent to use against us.

The Iraq situation has to be viewed within the broader context of the global war on terror. It is a global conflict.

You can’t look just at Iraq and make decisions there with respect to how that is going to come out without having major consequences for everything that’s going on.

And I think we are going to succeed in Iraq. I think the evidence is overwhelming. I think Ted Kennedy has been wrong from the very beginning. He’s the last man I’d go to for guidance in terms of how we should conduct U.S. national security policy.

Filed under: Democrats, In The News, Iraq, Politics, Republicans, Senate | Get Permalink or trackback |