Cheney Says Critics Of New Us Iraq Plan Play Into Hands Of Bin Laden

[wokensheep]

Cheney says critics of new US Iraq plan play into hands of Bin Laden
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070114/ts_af...7&printer=1
by David MillikinSun Jan 14, 1:59 PM ET

US Vice-President Dick Cheney accused critics of the administration's new strategy in Iraq of playing into the hands of Osama bin Laden and global terrorism.

Cheney said withdrawing forces from Iraq rather than the troop "surge" announced this week by President George W. Bush would be "the most dangerous blunder" possible.

"That is part and parcel of the underlying fundamental strategy that our adversaries believe afflicts the United States," Cheney said in an interview on Fox news.

"They are convinced that the current debate in the Congress, that the election campaign last fall, all of that is evidence that they're right when they say the United States doesn't have the stomach for the fight in this war against terror," he said.

"Bin Laden doesn't think he can beat us. He believes he can force us to quit," Cheney said, citing US military setbacks in Lebanon and Somalia that led to US withdrawals from those countries.

"He believes after Lebanon and Somalia, the United States doesn't have the stomach for a long war and Iraq is the current central battlefield in that war, and it's essential we win there and we will win there," he said.

"They're convinced that the United States will, in fact, pack it in and go home if they just kill enough of us," he said.

Announcing a long-awaited policy shift for Iraq after nearly four years of escalating violence since the US invaded the country in 2003, Bush said on Wednesday that he was adding 21,500 soldiers to the 132,000 US troops deployed in Iraq.

He said the fresh troops would focus on countering insurgents and sectarian violence in Baghdad and the unruly province of Anbar in tandem with a renewed push by the Iraqi government to achieve political reconciliation among the rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

His plan drew withering criticism in Congress, under opposition Democratic control since November elections, with some lawmakers suggesting a move to withhold funds for the troop increase.

The critics insisted that rather than pouring more soldiers into Iraq, Bush should be paving the way for a phased withdrawal from the country -- an approach recent opinion polls indicate is shared by a majority of voters.

Cheney said Bush would ignore popular opinion on this one.

"If we have a president who sees the polls going south and concludes we have to quit, all it will do is validate the Al-Qaeda view of the world," he said.

"This president does not make policy based on public opinion polls. He should not. It's absolutely essential here that we have to get it right."

Democratic Senator Barak Obama, a rising star who may run for president in 2008, countered that Cheney was firing "at a strawman" by claiming the opposition wanted to cut and run from Iraq.

"The vice president has pursued this wrong-headed course throughout the process," Obama said on CBS television.

"What we have suggested is that we begin a phased pullout," he said.

Republican Senator Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record) also reaffirmed his opposition to the Bush-Cheney plan on Sunday.

"This surge is too late and too little, and that it perpetuates the status quo," he said.

[ResistanceInOceania]

Quote:US Vice-President Dick Cheney accused critics of the administration's new strategy in Iraq of playing into the hands of Osama bin Laden and global terrorism.

Reporter: What do the attacks on 9/11 have to do with the war in Iraq?
President Bush: Nothing.