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US wants to leave 'with honour'
21/02/2007 14:58 - (SA)
Tokyo - US vice president Dick Cheney said on Wednesday the United States wants to finish its mission in Iraq and "return with honour", despite the war's growing unpopularity at home and doubts among US allies.
Cheney, whose visit to Tokyo comes just weeks after Japan's
defence minister said starting the Iraq war was a mistake, also
insisted Americans would not back a "policy of retreat".
The defence minister's remarks forced Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe to scurry to reassure Washington that Tokyo's backing for
US policy in Iraq was unchanged, although most Japanese think
that US President George W Bush was wrong to start the war.
"We know that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use
of strength, they are invited by the perception of weakness,"
Cheney said in a speech aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft
carrier at Yokosuka Navy Base near Tokyo.
"We know that if we leave Iraq before the mission is
completed, the enemy is going to come after us," Cheney said.
"And I want you to know that the American people will not
support a policy of retreat," he added. "We want to complete
the mission, we want to get it done right, and we want to
return with honour," said Cheney, who heads on Thursday for
Australia to meet Prime Minister John Howard, another backer of
Bush's Iraq policy.
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