Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday accused Democrats of “undermining” U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by balking at a White House funding request for nearly $100 billion.
“When members of Congress pursue an anti-war strategy that’s been called ‘slow bleeding,’ they are not supporting the troops, they are undermining them,” Cheney told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. “Anyone can say they support the troops, and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it’s time to provide the money.”
“The military answers to one commander in chief in the White House, not 535 commanders in chief on Capitol Hill,” said Cheney.
He was referring to the funding request that will be considered in the House this week. Democratic leaders have proposed conditions to the spending measure that would require a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by as early as the end of this year or as late as August 2008.
“When members of Congress speak not of victory but of time limits, deadlines or other arbitrary measures, they’re telling the enemy simply to watch the clock and wait us out,” Cheney said. “The military answers to one commander in chief in the White House, not 535 commanders in chief on Capitol Hill.”
The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying Democrats will continue to press Bush for “a change of course in Iraq.” The statement said Senate Democrats will hold “the president accountable for his failed ‘stay the course’ strategy in Iraq.”
President Bush, who was traveling in Colombia, urged Democrats to refrain from attaching conditions to the funding measure.
“My hope, of course, is that Congress provides the funding necessary for the combat troops to be able to do their job, without any strings attached,” he said.
Cheney said such strings “would hamper the war effort and interfere with the operational authority of the president and with our military commanders.”
