More tough talk on war with Iraq

By Wolf Blitzer
CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney minced no words in responding point by point to the critics who are urging a "go slow" approach toward removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. "Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network, or a murderous dictator, or the two working together, constitutes as grave a threat as can be imagined," he said in a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "The risk (sic) of inaction are far greater than the risk of action."

Cheney drew this lesson from the terror attacks of last September. "If the United States could have pre-empted 9/11, we would have, no question. Should we be able to prevent another, much more devastating attack, we will, no question. This nation will not live at the mercy of terrorists or terrorist regimes."

His tough talk was significant, coming just as several advisers to the first President Bush have come out against a pre-emptive strike -- or at least any quick unilateral U.S. action.

Former Bush Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger told me Sunday: "Until I know for sure, until we know at least with some confidence that we must act now, then I say we need to be very careful about going forward until we understand how complex this whole issue is."

And another former Bush Secretary of State, James Baker, writing Sunday in The New York Times, said the United States needs international support. "We should try our best not to have to go it alone, and the president should reject the advice of those who counsel doing so."

But Cheney argues that the United States cannot wait for Saddam Hussein to make the first move. "If we did wait until that moment," he said, "Saddam would simply be emboldened and it would become even harder for us to gather friends and allies to oppose him."

Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser during the Persian Gulf War, recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counter-terrorist campaign we have undertaken."

But Cheney disagrees: "I believe the opposite is true." The vice president says removing Saddam Hussein from power would help the war on terror and offer other immediate benefits as well. "Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad, moderates through the region would take heart and our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced just as it was following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991."