08/06/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10051

CHENEY ON TERRORISM

Wars are not won on the defensive. The only path to safety is the path of action. "This lesson has already been learned in Afghanistan," said Vice President Dick Cheney, "where U.S. forces destroyed the terror[ist] camps and liberated an entire nation from the Taleban regime."

But, removing the Taleban and disrupting al-Qaida is just the beginning. Mr. Cheney said, "There is a terrorist underworld spread out among sixty or more countries. The job we have will require every tool of diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement and military power."

The U.S. is committed to finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. "But," said Vice President Cheney, "this war involves more than just a person or a single grouping of people. We also face the threat of weapons of mass destruction." During the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies were able to manage the Soviet threat with summit meetings, arms control treaties, and strategies of deterrence and containment.

Things are different today. Mr. Cheney said, "There is no way to deter enemies who have no country to defend. And containment is not possible when dictators obtain weapons of mass destruction and have missiles to deliver them, or provide them in secret to a shadowy terror network."

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, said Vice President Cheney is "a dictator who is clearly pursuing these capabilities – and has used them, both in his war against Iran and against his own people." Mr. Cheney said, "The government of the United States will not look the other way as threats accumulate against us. Every significant danger to our country requires the most careful, deliberate, and decisive response by America and our allies. A regime that has gassed thousands of its own citizens – a regime that hates America and our friends – must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction."