AMERICAN.COM:Cheney: Nuclear Terrorism Is ‘Most Dangerous Threat’ We Face

Cheney: Nuclear Terrorism Is ‘Most Dangerous Threat’ We Face

September 9, 2011, 10:28 am

http://blog.american.com/2011/09/cheney-nuclear-terrorism-is-most-dangerous-threat-we-face/

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that the “most dangerous threat” we face is nuclear materials falling into the hands of terrorists.

“Nuclear weapons will no longer be a deterrent; they’ll be an incentive,” he said at AEI today.

Cheney sounded the warning when asked about going to blows with President George W. Bush and other administration members over how to deal with North Korea.

“The problem is that threat is very real,” he said, noting that North Korea has now tested two nuclear weapons and we “caught them red-handed” providing Syria—”one of the worst terror-sponsoring regimes on the face of the Earth”—with a reactor.

“Fortunately, Israel took that out,” he said. But the “problem we’re faced with is still very much there.”

“We do not yet have a handle on North Korea,” Cheney said.

The former vice president also said that the Obama administration was getting it wrong on the Iraq withdrawal.

“I think it would be a mistake to cut and run,” he said. “I don’t think we should turn our back on Iraq at this stage.”

“It’s very important for us to complete the mission,” Cheney added. “There’s a danger here, a rush for the exits under the current administration that would be very unfortunate.”