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Iraq
Cheney: Terrorists win 'if we lose our nerve'
Associated Press
Published December 7, 2005
FORT DRUM, N.Y. - Vice President Dick Cheney told the military Tuesday that terrorists can win in Iraq only "if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission." He rejected calls for a speedy drawdown of troops.
"This would be unwise in the extreme," Cheney told the troops, some just back from Iraq.
Cheney spoke in a cavernous aviation hangar on this base in northern New York, addressing an audience estimated at 3,000.
Cheney addressed a rally attended by the Army's 10th Mountain Division and the Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division, drawing frequent cheers.
He later sat down with about two dozen members of the 42nd Infantry Division to discuss their experiences in Iraq, telling them their work was "extraordinarily important . . . and the subject of considerable debate, as it should be."
Cheney praised recent comments by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., that too hasty a U.S. withdrawal would erase progress made in Iraq. "On this, both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree. The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission," Cheney said.
Lieberman, at a news conference in Washington, urged support for Bush. "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander in chief for three more years," Lieberman said. "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."
[Last modified December 7, 2005, 00:34:15]
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