US VICE-PRESIDENT Joe Biden has dismissed as “dead wrong” his predecessor Dick Cheney’s assertion that the new administration has made the United States more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
In an interview with CNN last night, Mr Biden said it was the Bush administration that had made the country less safe.
“The last administration left us in a weaker posture than we’ve been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world,” he said.
“I guarantee you we are safer today, our interests are more secure today than they were any time during the eight years of the Bush administration.”
Mr Cheney said last month some of President Barack Obama’s decisions “in my mind will raise the risk to the American people of another attack”.
The former vice-president argued the new administration had retreated from a war footing against Islamist extremists and adopted instead a “law enforcement” approach to terrorism.
Mr Biden insisted, however, the Bush administration failed to understand the true position of the United States in the world and did little to nurture alliances.
“Our interests are more secure, not just at home, but around the world.
“We are rebuilding America’s ability to lead,” Mr Biden said.
“People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.”
The vice-president condemned as “outrageous” a new Afghan law that critics say legalises rape within marriage and restricts women’s rights.
He stressed that US forces were not in Afghanistan to build a liberal democracy there.
“I am prepared to send American troops to protect the United States of America, to kill al-Qaeda, to root out extremists and to prevent them being able to use Afghanistan once again as a platform to attack the United States of America,” Mr Biden said.
“Do we find it abhorrent that that law exists or that it’s being considered? Absolutely, positively.
“But we also find abhorrent what’s going on in China in some places. We find abhorrent a lot of things.
“But the question is, if that were the only thing that existed, would we send my son and other sons there to risk their lives to die?”