Dick Cheney on Homeland Security Vice President of the United States; Former Republican Representative (WY)

Sub-sections under Homeland Security:
• Gulf War
• Military Rebuilding
• Other issues under Homeland Security

Captured or killed thousands of Al Qaida members

A: We've actively and aggressively pursued him. We've captured or killed thousands of Al Qaida in various places around the world and especially in Afghanistan. We'll continue to very aggressively pursue him, and I'm confident eventually we'll get him. The key to success in Afghanistan has been, again, to go in and go after the terrorists, which we've done, and also take down the Taliban regime which allowed them to function there, in effect sponsors, if you will, of the Al Qaida organization. Here we are, two and a half years later, we're four days away from a democratic election, the first one in history in Afghanistan. We've got 10 million voters who have registered to vote, nearly half of them women. That election will put in place a democratically elected government that will take over next December. We've made enormous progress in Afghanistan, in exactly the right direction.

Deal with Zarqawi by taking him out

CHENEY: We know Zarqawi is still in Baghdad today. He is responsible for most of the major car bombings that have killed or maimed thousands of people. He's the one you will see on the evening news beheading hostages. He is, without question, a bad guy. He is, without question, a terrorist. He was, in fact, in Baghdad before the war, and he's in Baghdad now after the war. The fact of the matter is that this is exactly the kind of track record we've seen over the years. We have to deal with Zarqawi by taking him out, and that's exactly what we'll do.

Use a very aggressive policy of going after the terrorists

EDWARDS: We were attacked. But we weren't attacked by Saddam Hussein. The reality is that the best defense is a good offense, which means leading America returning to its proud tradition of the last 75 years, of once again leading strong coalitions so we can get at these terrorist cells where they are, before they can do damage to us and to the American people. We made clear that we will do that, and we will do it aggressively.

If Bush not elected, great danger of terrorist attack

Biggest threat today is terrorists getting nuclear weapons

No permission slip to defend the American people

Urged shooting down hijacked planes on 9/11

The fact that Cheney recommended shooting down any commercial planes that might have been hijacked validated Bush's decision to place him on the ticket. Only someone with his experience in the Defense Department could have conceived on the spot of such a drastic but necessary measure.

Steady, focused, relentless campaign against US enemies

Not long after September 11th, one high-ranking al Qaeda official said, "This is the beginning of the end for America." It's pretty clear this terrorist did not know us. It's clear the terrorists who attacked us did not understand the strength and the resilience of this country. And they, clearly, did not understand the determination of our President.

Swift retaliation for USS Cole terrorist attack

American military is worse off today than in 1992

LIEBERMAN: I want to assure the American people that the American military is the best-trained, best-equipped, most powerful force in the world, and that Al Gore and I will do whatever it takes to keep them that way. It’s not right and it’s not good for our military to run them down, essentially, in the midst of a partisan political debate. And judging by its results, from Desert Storm to Kosovo, the American military has performed brilliantly.

CHENEY: The facts are dramatically different. I’m not attacking the military, Joe. I have enormous regard for the men and women of the US military. But it’s irresponsible to suggest that we should not have this debate in a presidential campaign.

We must not send unprepared, demoralized troops to war

LIEBERMAN: Secretary Cohen, General Shelton, will tell you that the military is ready. If you look at our budget, we commit more than twice as much as Governor Bush. I don’t want the American people to feel insecure. We have met our recruitment targets in each of the services this year. In fact, in the areas where our opponents have said we are overextended, such as the Balkans, the soldiers there have the highest rate of reenlistment than anywhere else. This administration has begun to transform the military to prepare it to meet the threats of weapons of mass destruction, of ballistic missiles, of terrorism.

CHENEY: Everybody wearing the uniform is a volunteer. When we don’t give them leadership, we undermine morale. There is no more important responsibility for a president than his role as commander in chief, and his decision when to send our men and women to war. When we send them without the right kind of training, we put their lives at risk.

We cannot allow Saddam to have nuclear weapons

CHENEY: We might have no choice. At the end of the war, we had pretty well decimated their military. We had a strong international coalition against them, effective economic sanctions and a very robust inspection plan. Now we have a situation where the coalition now no longer is tied tightly together. Recently two Gulf states have reopened diplomatic relations with Baghdad. The Russians and the French now are flying commercial airliners into Baghdad. UN inspectors have been kicked out. If Saddam Hussein were taking steps to rebuild nuclear capability or weapons of mass destruction, we’d have to give very serious consideration to military action to. I don’t think you can afford to have a man like Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons.

Restore bond of trust between military and President

The first order of business is to renew the bond of trust between the commander in chief and the military. This means:
• higher pay, improved housing, and better schools for their children.
• reviewing our overseas deployments in dozens of countries, and insisting that deployments have well-defined objectives.
• providing first-rate health care and treating veterans with dignity.
• Above all, it means respecting the military and earning their trust in return.

Warned of nuclear proliferation in 1990s

Complained that Congress gave DoD unwanted weapons & forces

Added technology & infrastructure as pillars of military

Americans support force when appropriate & clear objective

Supported fully funding SDI in 1990s

Co-sponsored SDI; “peace thru strength”; base closings

Cheney co-sponsored the following bills in Congress:
• H.CON.RES.83 (1984) & H.CON.RES.150 (1986):A concurrent resolution to express the sense of the Congress that the national security policy of the US should reflect a national strategy of peace through strength.
• H.CON.RES.98 (1984):A resolution calling for support for the President’s efforts to develop strategic defensive systems to make nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.
• H.CON.RES.129 (1986):A concurrent resolution to establish a Congressional Commission to be known as the “Perot Commission on Americans Missing in Southeast Asia” to determine whether or not U.S. POWs are being held in Southeast Asia and to report to Congress appropriate action to effect the release of any POWs found to be alive.
• H.R.1583 (1988):A bill to establish the Bipartisan Commission on the Consolidation of Military Bases.

Criticizes Clinton/Gore’s neglect, not military itself

I would suggest to Mr. Gore that when he speaks of “running down the military,” he has made a poor choice of words. When you triple our commitments around the world, while at the same time taking the Army from 14 divisions down to 10, the Air Force from 17 wings to 13, and the Navy from well over 400 ships down toward fewer than 300 - that, Mr. Gore, is “running down the military.”

We all know that everyone in the service, from the highest officer to the newest recruit, is not fully free to speak about mission or morale. That is as it should be. But for the Vice President to claim - on their behalf, without fear of contradiction - that all is well in the military, is only to take further advantage of them.

Gulf War: Rejected frontal assault in favor of “left hook”

Cheney says his best decision was to suggest Colin Powell become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Cheney wasn’t afrgaid to rebuke his friend. Powell, in his autobiography, ‘’My American Journey,’’ recalls that Cheney was upset with him for questioning the idea of liberating Kuwait. Powell thought it made more sense to defend Saudi Arabia’s oil fields. ‘’Colin, you’re chairman of the Joint Chiefs,’’ Powell quoted Cheney as saying. ‘So stick to military matters.’’

Congressional authorization wasn’t needed for Kuwait

A: It was my view at the time that we were absolutely committed to getting Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait one way or the other, no matter what we had to do. We had to have the Saudis as allies in that venture, but if no-one else had been with us if it had just been the US and Saudi Arabia, without the UN, without the authorisation of the Congress, we were prepared to go ahead. I argued in public session before the Congress that we did not need Congressional authorisation. That in fact we had the Truman precedent from the Korean crisis of 1950 that the Senate and all ratified the UN charter. By this time the UN Security Council had authorised the use of force, saying that we could do it by January 15th if he wasn’t out by then and that legally and from a constitutional stand point we had all the authority we needed. [However], I think having had the Congress vote ultimately was a major plus.

Gulf War: No, we should not have gone to Baghdad

One of the reasons we were successful from a military perspective was because we had very clear-cut military objectives. The President gave us an assignment that could be achieved by the application of military force. He said, “Liberate Kuwait.” He said, “Destroy Saddam Hussein’s offensive capability,” -- both definable military objectives. And as soon as we had achieved those objectives, we stopped hostilities, on the grounds that we had in fact fulfilled our objective.

Now, the notion that we should have somehow continued for another day to two is, I think, fallacious. At the time that we made the decision to stop hostilities, it was the unanimous recommendation of the President’s military advisors that we had indeed achieved our objectives, and therefore it was time to stop the killing and the destruction.

Gulf War: We did it right to avoid a quagmire

I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it’s my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq.

US military is best in world, but trend is wrong direction

Military reductions are too much for post-Cold War

LIEBERMAN: And the fact is that Governor Bush recommended in his major policy statement on the military earlier this year that we skip the next generation of military equipment: helicopters, submarines, tactical air fighters, all the rest. That would really cripple our readiness, exactly the readiness that Dick Cheney is talking about.

Decreased army means increased risk to lives of troops

Military today is overused and underresourced

Our military today is overused and underresourced.
• Over the last decade, commitments worldwide have gone up 300%, while our military forces have been cut by 40%.
• Budget shortfalls have slowed some training missions and brought others to a complete stop.
• Defense spending today is lower as a percentage of GNP than at any time since 1940 -- the year before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• As of January 1993, 85% of Air Force combat units were fully ready for their mission. Today that number is at 65%.
• Pilots are flying more missions on older aircraft. The average plane is 20 years old. And even with new planes coming online, by the year 2015, the average plane will be 30 years old.
• At the same time, overseas deployments have multiplied, stretching the services to the limit, and causing shortages of spare parts and equipment.
• All of this has brought on serious problems of readiness, recruiting, retention and morale.

Need to spend more, but spend it wisely

The needs of our nation’s defense, and the needs of our defenders, are not merely relevant in a national campaign. They must be front and center. Seizing this opportunity will require not just spending more, but spending more wisely.
• It means giving today’s military what it needs.
• It means beginning to create the military of the future, by capitalizing on new technologies and placing greater emphasis on R & D.
• It means accelerating research and deployment of missile defenses.

Cautious cuts: A-12, V22, F14D, Seawolf, 500,000 troops

Still, by 1991, Cheney eventually agreed to arms control proposals. Cheney killed a number of major weapons systems, most notably the Navy’s A-12 Stealth fighter-which, at $30-$60 billion, was the biggest program ever terminated by a defense secretary. He also tried to kill the V22 vertical take-off aircraft, the F14D fighter jet, and the Seawolf submarine. But Congress restored them to the budget. Cheney also moved to cut the armed forces by a half-million troops, and to shut down more than 40 military bases that, as a result, would no longer be needed. He also held the B-2 Stealth bomber program to 20 planes, when the Air Force wanted at least four times that number.

In Congress, consistently voted to raise military spending

Downsized military while protecting “people programs”