Cheney: the terrorists are betting that they can run out the clock on the Bush-Cheney administration

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http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/864tewrq.asp?pg=2

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Was Iraq tougher than he had thought it would be?

Yes, that's true. . . . The notion that somehow we've got to get across to people is they just cannot think of this as a conventional war. This is not Desert Storm. It's not Korea. It's not World War II. This is a struggle that's going to go on in that part of the world for decades. I don't know that you're going to be involved for Iraq for decades; I don't want to say that. But just think about it. We just have to have people understand that, and understand that the alternative is not peace.

The alternative is not, we go back to the way the world was before 9/11. You can't turn back the clock. . . . There's always a possibility that maybe the next president you elect decides they don't want to continue the policy and so they adopt the other approach, the one that failed before 9/11. And I think to some extent the terrorists are betting that they can run out the clock on the Bush-Cheney administration and that it will be easier for them in the future because they won't face the kind of determined action that this administration has taken to take them on, to take the fight to them, to put in place first-rate defenses here at home, to do all those things we've done that have kept us safe and secure for the last five years.

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Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. This article is adapted from his new biography Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President (HarperCollins).