Cheney

Cheney says US must not retreat from Iraq

WASHINGTON, Saturday (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney insisted on Friday that America must not turn its back on Iraq, even as the Bush administration considers a course change in the war after voters vented anger over it in this month's elections.

“Some in our country may believe in good faith that retreating from Iraq would make America safer. Recent experience teaches the opposite lesson,” Cheney said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

Cheney was speaking publicly for the first time since the Nov. 7 elections in which voter anger over Iraq helped oust President George W. Bush's Republicans from power in Congress. He praised departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a reformer and “one of the great public servants of the age,” drawing applause from the audience.

Cheney is a close ally of Rumsfeld. Some analysts believe Bush's announcement of the Pentagon chief's dismissal the day after the election may signal diminished influence for Cheney, seen by some historians as one of the most influential vice presidents in modern history.

Cheney made no mention of the man Bush nominated to succeed Rumsfeld, Robert Gates. Bush said he turned to Gates, who headed the CIA during the president's father's administration, because he wanted a “fresh perspective” on the war.