Cheney and Edwards trade sharp attacks on Iraq

4.15pm UPDATE


CLEVELAND - Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic Senator John Edwards battled fiercely over the war in Iraq in a debate that featured repeated personal attacks on the other side's records and judgment.

The running mates for President Bush and Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry picked up where their bosses left off last week -- arguing over Iraq and US security policy -- but expanded the battlegrounds to domestic issues like taxes and gay marriage.

"What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do," Cheney said, arguing the war in Iraq was a crucial front in a broader war on terror. "If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action."

Edwards, a North Carolina senator, said Cheney and Bush were ignoring the growing chaos in Iraq and diverting crucial attention from international threats like the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

"Mr. Vice President, you are still not being straight with the American people," Edwards told Cheney, adding later: "I don't think the country can take four more years of this kind of experience."

The vice presidential debate is often a sideshow to the main event in White House races, but the match-up of Cheney and Edwards gained new significance after a series of polls showed the race tightening.

Cheney used the debate to strongly defend the Bush administration's record in Iraq, rejecting claims the war was going badly or that the United States was bearing too much of the burden.

He echoed Bush's criticism of Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, and Edwards for shifting their views on Iraq in accordance with the political climate.

"You're not credible on Iraq because of the enormous inconsistencies that John Kerry and you have voiced on Iraq," Cheney said. "We have not seen the kind of consistency that a commander in chief needs to have."

Cheney repeated his arguments that Iraq harboured insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the war, even though a CIA report has found no conclusive evidence of that, and that there were links between Iraq and al Qaeda.

The 9/11 commission found there was no collaborative relationship between the two and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had seen no hard evidence of such a link.

"Mr. Vice President, there is no connection between the attacks of Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein," Edwards said.

'FACTS WRONG'

Cheney shot back: "The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror."

Edwards responded that "someone did get it wrong, but it wasn't John Kerry and John Edwards. They (Bush and Cheney) got it wrong. When we had Osama bin Laden cornered, they left the job to the Afghan warlords."

Cheney criticised Kerry for voting against big-ticket defence items and against the 1991 Gulf War and said Kerry and Edwards shifted their views on Iraq in accordance with the political climate.

"It's a consistent pattern over time of always being on the wrong side of defence issues," Cheney said of Kerry. "A little tough talk in the midst of a campaign or as part of a presidential debate cannot obscure a record of 30 years of being on the wrong side of defence issues."

Cheney, who has a long resume of high-level government jobs, has been one of the most influential advisers in the Bush administration, but Edwards said that did not mean much.

"A long resume does not equal good judgment," Edwards said.

Edwards portrayed Bush and Cheney as captives to special interests, and highlighted Cheney's ties to the oil industry and Texas energy giant Halliburton, which he headed from 1995 to 2000 and which now is a leading US military contractor in Iraq.

Cheney said Kerry and Edwards criticised his relationship with Halliburton because "they're trying to throw up a smokescreen."

The two also branched out to discuss taxes and gay marriage as the debates begin to shift to domestic issues. Edwards accused Bush and Cheney of passing huge tax breaks for the rich and leaving the working class out of the equation.

"We don't just value wealth, which they do," Edwards said. "We value work."

About 62 million people in the United States watched last week's debate, but the audience was expected to be considerably smaller on Tuesday with the start of the US baseball playoffs as competition. About 28 million people watched the vice presidential debate in 2000.

- REUTERS