"What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or willful blindness," Cheney said. "We will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve.... The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action."
Referring to unnamed critics of the Bush administration, Cheney said, "Some concede that Saddam is evil, power-hungry and a menace, but that until he crosses the threshold of actually possessing nuclear weapons we should rule out any pre-emptive action."
Calling this reasoning "deeply flawed, "Cheney warned, "If we did wait until that moment, Saddam would simply be emboldened, and it would become even harder for us to gather friends and allies to oppose him."
After pondering the testimony of Iraqi defectors and other evidence, the vice president said, "Many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon. Just how soon, we cannot really gauge." [MSNBC]
sounds like they ain't gonna wait around and find out!
1:49:43 PM
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