CLEVELAND, United States (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic rival John Edwards clashed on Iraq, terrorism and the economy in their only debate, seeking any advantage just 28 days before the November 2 election.
Facing the very first question of the televised 90-minute confrontation, Cheney said Saddam Hussein had "an established relationship with Al-Qaeda" and declared: "What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do."
"If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action," the vice president said defiantly, despite the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction at the core of the case for war.
Staring at his opponent, Edwards seized on Cheney's claim of links between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's network and flatly charged: "Mr Vice President, you are still not being straight with the American people."
"There is no connection between the attacks of September 11 and Saddam Hussein," said Edwards. "And you've gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There is not."
The debate came as polls showed the race tightening and as the White House found itself besieged by new charges of mismanaging the war and using flawed charges of links between Saddam and Al-Qaeda to justify the conflict.
Edwards, 51, hoped to add to the energy Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry injected into his lagging campaign after a strong showing late last week in his first of three televised debates with US President George W. Bush.
Cheney, 63, aimed to stop Kerry in his tracks by questioning his fitness to command the US-led global war on terrorism, while making the case that deadly chaos in Iraq will not short-circuit election planned for January.
Political analysts agree that vice presidential debates, which date back only to 1976, usually have little impact on the battle for the top job, though they usually offer more rhetorical fireworks than do the headliners.
The rumble-voiced vice president and smiling senator from North Carolina did not disappoint, each accusing the other's running mate of lacking the credibility necessary to lead the war on terrorism.
Cheney said Kerry believed 30 years ago that US troops "should not be deployed without UN approval" and noted that he said last week that US preemptive war ought to pass a "global test" for legitimacy.
"A little tough talk in the midst of a campaign or as part of a presidential debate cannot obscure a record of 30 years of being on the wrong side of defense issues," the vice president added.
Edwards accused Bush and Cheney of painting a "rosy scenario" in Iraq and Afghanistan and pledged that he and Kerry "are going to tell them the truth about what's happening."
"We're not going to suggest to them that things are going well in Iraq or anyplace else when, in fact, they're not," he said.
As Cheney and Edwards prepared for their high-octane exchange, the Bush administration's strategy drew fire from an unlikely source: the former US civilian overseer of Iraq, Paul Bremer.
Bremer complained in a speech to insurance professionals that "we never had enough troops on the ground" after Baghdad fell, a shortfall that left the Iraqi capital prey to "horrid" looting.
"We paid a big price for not stopping it, because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said.
In a statement sent later to The Washington Post, Bremer stressed his support for the US strategy in Iraq, however.
"I believe that we currently have sufficient troop levels in Iraq," he said, noting that his references to troop levels referred to May 2003, "when I believed we needed either more coalition troops or Iraqi security forces to address the looting."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dealt another blow to the principle rationales for the Iraq war by telling foreign policy experts that he had seen no "strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam to Al-Qaeda.
Rumsfeld later issued a statement saying there had been a misunderstanding. But he did not disavow the comment.