US Vice President Dick Cheney launched a blistering new attack on critics of the Iraq war, saying withdrawing troops would cause a "dangerous illusion." He also said senators and others now accusing President George W. Bush of misleading Americans into war were guilty of "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety".
A respected Democratic congressman called last week for the 160,000 US troops in Iraq to be brought out, but Cheney said: "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."
But following Bush's lead at the weekend, Cheney toned down White House attacks on Representative John Murtha, the decorated Vietnam War veteran who said the troops should come home.
He also said it was fair to debate the decision to go to war in March 2003 and acknowledged that US intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was wrong. But he insisted the intelligence was the best available which even current congressional critics of the war had seen.
"The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight. But any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," he said.
"What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some US senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."
He added: "Some of the most irresponsible comments have come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein."
Cheney highlighted the dangerous conditions for US troops in Iraq, where almost 2,100 have now been killed.
"Meanwhile, back in the United States, a few politicians are suggesting these brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood.
"This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate."
Cheney has been the most outspoken White House critic of those now attacking the administration over the Iraq war.
Public doubts about the war have sent personal ratings for Bush and Cheney to an all time low.
Iraq has become the main item on the political agenda in Washington and divisions over the war were exposed by Murtha who made the first ever call by a member of the Congress for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
According to opinion polls, a majority of the public also supports bringing troops home.
Bush, Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have led a strident counter-attack against war critics in recent days.
Bush spent much of his one week tour of Asia defending the US role in Iraq.
He said in Beijing on Sunday that a hurried withdrawal would have "terrible consequences" and vowed it would not happen while he was president.
Rumsfeld insisted Sunday that any troop pullout would be decided by US military commanders in Iraq based on security conditions.
The pressure is on the administration however.
A Newsweek poll this month said 52 percent of Americans believed Cheney deliberately misused intelligence to build a case for the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, told CNN television on Monday that United States should be able to pull back some forces from Iraq next year but it is still premature to talk about a full withdrawal.
