WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (AFP) - Republicans and Democrats clashed bitterly Thursday over the war on terrorism, with Vice President Dick Cheney heaping scorn on a call by presidential candidate John Kerry for a more "sensitive" campaign involving other nations.
The Kerry camp struck back by accusing President George W. Bush of dangerously alienating US allies and said that "arrogance isn`t a virtue" when it comes to defending the country after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Cheney kicked off the latest exchange with a broadside at Kerry`s pledge last week to wage a "more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror" that reaches out to other countries.
"A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 people and developed weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more," Cheney said while campaigning in the key midwestern state of Ohio.
"The people who beheaded (Wall Street Journal reporter) Daniel Pearl and (US contractor) Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our sensitivity," he said.
Cheney said the United States was in a "fight to preserve our freedom and our way of life ... (and) those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed."
With the November 2 election shaping up as a cliffhanger, the Republicans have stepped up their attacks on Kerry`s credentials as a commander in chief which the Massachussets senator highlighted at his nominating convention last month.
"The job of the commander in chief as he sees it is to use America`s military strength to respond to attacks," Cheney said. "But September 11 showed us, as surely as anything can, that we must act against gathering dangers, not wait to be attacked."
"In the world we live in now, responding to attacks is not enough. We must do everything in our power to prevent attacks, and that includes using military force," said Cheney, a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq.
Cheney, pressing the Republicans` attacks on Kerry`s Senate voting record as inconsistent and left-wing, also scored the Democrat`s moves in the 1990s to seek cuts in the intelligence budget.
"The senator has taken lately to portraying himself as a champion of strengthening our intelligence, but looking at the record, as he has invited us to do, paints a picture that ought to give us pause," Cheney said.
The Kerry campaign countered that Cheney was waging "desperate misleading attacks" and ignoring Bush`s own call for the United States to be sensitive in using its power and influence.
"Dick Cheney doesnt understand that arrogance isnt a virtue, especially when our country is in danger," said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. "Alienating allies makes it harder to hunt terrorists and bring them justice."
The Democrats rolled out other heavyweights to take on Cheney, including retired General Merrill McPeak, former chief of staff of the US Air Force, who stressed Kerry`s toughness as a decorated Vietnam war veteran.
"John Kerry volunteered for active military service when many others, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, found a way to avoid it," McPeak said in a statement.
"Do the president and vice president really want to have a debate about who is more suited to fight the war in Iraq and the war on terror? Do they really want a debate about which candidate has the toughness to make America stronger?"
Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said Kerry was a "veteran who understands war, and knows that the key to success is to rally allies to your cause."
President Bushs arrogant policies in Iraq have not worked. Vice President Cheney should spend less time attacking Senator Kerry and more time trying to fix the Bush administrations mess in Iraq," Lautenberg said.