Washington: Politics over the failed al Qaeda attempt to blow up a US plane turned ugly on Wednesday with the White House entering into a verbal duel with former vice president Dick Cheney, who had attacked President Barack Obama for "trying to pretend" America was not at war.
The White House today hit back on Cheney, charging that the "bellicose rhetoric" of the Bush-Cheney regime had failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda.
Cheney has come out of the "woodwork" since the incident, a top Obama aide wrote on a White House blog. "It is telling that Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticising the administration than condemning the attackers".
The strong remarks from White House came hours after Cheney in a statement to Politico magazine said: "As I have watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war".
Hitting back, Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director, alleged that it was during the Bush-Cheney regime that al Qaeda and Taliban gained ground and established safe haven in the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"For seven years after 9/11, while our national security was overwhelmingly focused on Iraq, a country that had no al Qaeda presence before our invasion, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda`s leadership was able to set up camp in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they continued to plot attacks against the United States," Pfeiffer wrote.
Pfeiffer wrote al Qaeda also regenerated in places like Yemen and Somalia, establishing new safe-havens that have grown over a period of years.
"It was Obama who finally implemented a strategy of winding down the war in Iraq, and actually focusing resources on the war against al Qaeda, more than doubling our troops in Afghanistan, and building partnerships to target al Qaeda`s safe-havens in Yemen and Somalia," he said.
"In less than one year, we have already seen many al Qaeda leaders taken out, our alliances strengthened, and the pressure on al Qaeda increased worldwide," he wrote.
Noting that Obama was more focused on action, Pfeiffer said: "Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country".
"And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President".
Referring to Obama`s statements since his inauguration, Pfeiffer said he had several times stated that the country was at war, including while accepting the Nobel Prize where he said: "We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land".
Earlier in the day, Cheney alleged that Obama seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core al Qaeda trained terrorists, the US would not be at war.
"He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, `war on terror,` we won`t be at war," Cheney said.
Ever since the failed Christmas attack, the Republicans have been very critical charging Obama of being soft in his policies against terrorism.
PTI
