US Vice President Dick Cheney defended the invasion of Iraq as a critical strike against terror, saying today that the United States still faced enemies that could inflict hundreds of thousands of American deaths in a single day.
"We could not accept the grave danger of Saddam Hussein and his allies turning weapons of mass destruction against us or our friends and allies," Mr Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Mr Cheney struck back at criticism of the Iraq war that has built over the months since President George Bush declared major combat over on May 1st.
"The ultimate nightmare could bring devastation to our country on as scale we have never experienced," Mr Cheney said. "Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in a single day of war."
"Remember what we saw on the morning of 9/11. And knowing the nature of these enemies, we have as clear a responsibility as could ever fall to government," Mr Cheney said. "We must do everything in our power to keep terrorists from ever acquiring weapons of mass destruction."
Mr Cheney did not offer evidence of any link between former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the September 11th attacks, but he cast the Iraq invasion as part of the war on terror. He contrasted the Bush administration's efforts to combat terrorism with what he called previous presidents' "ad hoc" attempts.
"President Bush declined the course of inaction, and the results are there to see," MR Cheney said.
"It would be reckless in the extreme to rule out action and save our worries until the day they strike," he said. "If the threat from terrorists and terrorist states are permitted to fully emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late."
His speech was the latest in a wave of public appearances and interviews top White House officials are using to answer critics of Bush's handling of Iraq.
AP