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Cheney:
US never had burden of proof
By Times Of India
11/22/05 "TOA" -- -- WASHINGTON: US vice president Dick Cheney on
Monday accused critics of "corrupt and shameless" revisionism in
suggesting the White House misled the nation in a rush to war, the
latest salvo in an increasingly acrimonious debate over prewar
intelligence.
Cheney also denounced proposals for a quick US withdrawal from Iraq
as "a dangerous illusion" and shrugged off the failure to find
weapons of mass destruction.
"We never had the burden of proof," he said, adding that it had been
up to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to prove to the world that he
didn't have such weapons.
Following president Bush's lead, Cheney praised the character of Rep
John Murtha even as he voiced strong disagreement with the
Pennsylvania Democrat's proposal last week to pull out all US
troops.
"He's a good man, a Marine, a patriot -- and he's taking a clear
stand in an entirely legitimate discussion," Cheney told the
American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
Cheney, who represented Wyoming in the House of Representatives in
the 1980s, called Murtha "my friend and former colleague."
A key Democrat on military issues with close ties to the Pentagon,
Murtha set off a firestorm last week when he proposed all of the
some 160,000 US troops now in Iraq be pulled out over the next six
months.
Congressional Republicans denounced him and White House spokesman
Scott Mc Clellan, traveling with the president in Asia, branded him
as an ultraliberal comparable to activist filmmaker Michael Moore.
Later, Bush and other administration officials toned down their
criticism, fearful of a backlash in support of Murtha. Bush on
Sunday called Murtha "a fine man" and longtime supporter of the
military.
However, Cheney said, "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that
another retreat by the civilised world would satisfy the appetite of
the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."
"Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a
few simple questions," Cheney said, such as whether the US would be
"better off or worse off" with terror leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control of Iraq.
Murtha told CNN, "I'm trying to prevent another Vietnam" and
predicted Cheney would eventually see it that way, too. "This war
cannot be won militarily, ... cannot be won on the ground," Murtha
said.
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited
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