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Cheney Accuses Obama of "Dithering," White House Hits Back
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2009102...tanunrestcheney
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House slammed Dick Cheney Thursday, accusing him of years of neglect of Afghanistan, after the ex-vice president said President Barack Obama was "dithering" on troop decisions.
The latest fierce feud over national security between the past and current administrations flared up as Obama nears a fateful choice on whether to order thousands more troops to the Afghan war after an exhaustive strategy review.
"What vice president Cheney calls dithering, the president calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and the American public," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Gibbs said Cheney was in no position to fault Obama, saying he had ignored a previous request for more troops, lodged with the Bush administration and only met by Obama in March, soon after he came to office.
"The vice president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan. Even more curious given the fact that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's for more than eight months," Gibbs said.
"I think we've all seen what happens when somebody doesn't take that responsibility seriously."
Cheney made his comments at a dinner in Washington on Wednesday, in his latest lacerating criticisms of the Obama administration on national security policy.
"Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission," Cheney said.
"The White House must stop dithering while America?s armed forces are in danger."
"Waffling while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy endangers them and hurts our cause.
"President Obama's advisors have decided that it's easier to blame the Bush administration than support our troops."
Cheney was particularly irked by a claim by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel at the weekend that the Bush team had not asked tough questions about Afghanistan leaving Obama to start examining the war from the beginning.
The former vice-president said the Bush team dug into every aspect of Afghan and Pakistan policy in late 2008, and briefed Obama's team before he took office.
He claimed that Obama's initial new strategy unveiled in March and based on counter-insurgency was based largely on that study.
Gibbs said he did not know about the specific review, but took another swipe at Cheney, saying "I find it interesting that he's blaming us for something that he didn't see fit to do over, best I can tell, seven years of a war in Afghanistan."
Obama, who ordered an extra 21,500 troops to Afghanistan in March, is considering a request from war commander General Stanley McChrystal for at least 40,000 more soldiers for to fight insurgents in Afghanistan.
Cheney also took aim in his speech against other aspects of Obama's foreign policy, lambasting especially, his engagement of Iran.
While Obama was stretching out his hand to the Islamic Republic, Tehran was financing terrorism in Iraq, Syria and the Palestinian territories, Cheney charged.
While former president George W. Bush has muted criticism of his successor, Cheney has been a frequent and vocal antagonist to Obama.
In August, he told Fox News that he had "serious doubts" about how much Obama "understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation."
In May, he and Obama waged a war of words over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, and interrogation practices branded by critics as torture, which Cheney defended and Obama outlawed soon after taking office in January.
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"The favorite American pastime is not baseball, it's moral crusades."
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