Former Vice President Dick Cheney was in Benton Township on Thursday night. Speaking to members of the Southwest Michigan Economic Club at Lake Michigan College, he covered several controversial issues related to foreign policy and national security. Cheney began by framing the discussion in the memory of September Eleventh, noting the changes that event brought about in America, and the challenges that went along with fighting an enemy like Al Qaeda. He said that to effectively defeat terror, the US needed to approach the threat from a military, and not law enforcement, perspective...and pointed to the war in Afghanistan as a direct result of that strategy. Cheney warned that the Obama Administration's perceived reluctance to commit more resources to Afghanistan could result in a loss of the progress made there over the past several years, which in turn would harm US credibility and security. Cheney also defended the Bush Administration's handling of terror suspects, and said the so-called harsh interrogation tactics used on them very well may have saved thousands of American lives. He said that techniques like water-boarding were only used on a handful of detainees at most, and the information obtained through those tactics made it possible for the US to ward off another attack by Al Qaeda at a time when not much was known about its operations. Additionally, he called current talk of prosecuting lower-level officials and interrogators "absolutely abhorrent", and said that key congressional leaders were well aware of what was going on. He later spoke against the idea of pulling out of Iraq, which he said represents a potential US ally in the Middle East and a unique example of democracy in that region.
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