Hourly Update

Vice president stumps for Arizona Republicans

PHOENIX -- Weak response to prior terrorist attacks paved the way for future ones, culminating with Sept. 11, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday. Cheney used a $500-a-plate luncheon fundraiser here for the state Republican Party to lay out what he said is the crucial issue of national security in upcoming congressional elections. He said the races offer clear choices between the policies of the current administration and the "strategy of resignation and defeatism." Cheney specifically singled out Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., for his call to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Murtha said that would be in the tradition of pulling out of Lebanon after the bombing of a military barracks there in 1983 and the decision to abandon Somalia in the wake of an attack on American soldiers there -- both wrong decisions. "By doing so we simply invited more danger because the terrorists concluded that if they killed enough Americans they could change American policy, because they had," Cheney told the more than 200 at the fundraiser. "So they continued to wage attacks against America and American interests." That, Cheney said, includes the 1993 car bomb at the World Trade Center, the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and ultimately the events of 9-11. "If we follow Congressman Murtha's advice and withdraw from Iraq the same way we withdrew from Beirut in 1983 and Mogadishu in 1993 we will simply validate the al-Qaida strategy and invite more terrorist attacks in the future," he said. The vice president's remarks come amid sagging polls about the continued presence of U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- and the administration's refusal to set a deadline for withdrawal. Defending the war has become a potential political liability for some politicians, as shown by the defeat last week of incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary. The vice president, however, told the GOP audience that defending the war need not be a losing proposition if candidates make the focus "the fight against terror," keep national security "at the top of our agenda" and put Democrats who question that agenda on the offensive. "What these Democrats are pushing now is the very kind of retreat that has been tried in the past," Cheney said. "It is contrary to our values, it would betray our friends, and it would only heighten the danger to the United States," he continued. "So the choice before the American people is becoming clearer every day: For the sake of our security, this nation must reject any strategy of resignation and defeatism in the face of determined efforts."