CRAWFORD, Texas, August 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The White House has charged those who oppose military action on Iraq with “willful blindness” to the mortal threat Baghdad poses, and said launching an attack is U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision alone.

Amid slipping public support for ousting Saddam Hussein and a growing chorus of skepticism about Bush’s Iraq policy, Vice President Dick Cheney made the administration’s most forceful case yet for military action, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or willful blindness,” Cheney said Monday, August 26, in a speech to the national convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve,” he added, saying that the United States would work with its allies but had a moral obligation to act.

Cheney said Washington would pursue thus-far vain efforts to rally its allies and nations in the region behind military action, but hammered home the point that the world cannot wait until Saddam acquires nuclear weapons.

“The imminence of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the huge dangers it involves, the rejection of a viable inspection system and the demonstrated hostility of Saddam Hussein combine to produce an imperative for preemptive action,” he said.

While emphasizing that Washington would continue to work closely with its allies, the vice president underlined the administration's view that it had a moral obligation to neutralize what it sees as the Iraqi threat, and in short order.

“The elected leaders of this country have a responsibility to consider all of the available options, and we are doing so,” Cheney told the convention.

Cheney, clearly taking issue with critics Monday, said the arguments against acting were based on “deeply flawed,” logic.

He also brushed aside critics’ fears about the impact of any war on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Ordinary Iraqis, he said, “are sure to erupt in joy in the same way throngs in Kabul (the Afghan capital) greeted the Americans,” if, or when, Saddam is ousted.

“Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad, moderates throughout the region would take heart and our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced just as it was following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991,” he went on.

The Washington Post welcomed Tuesday, August 26, Cheney’s “powerful case” for attacking Iraq and suggested that soon the Bush administration will make its case in detail before the U.S. Congress.

“The evidence of Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ambitions for using them must be more fully and convincingly detailed; so must the administration’s calculation of the likely costs, in lives and resources, of destroying his regime,” the Post said in an editorial.

Meanwhile, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed that White House lawyers have concluded that the president does not need congressional approval to launch an attack against Iraq.

“That is the determination of the White House counsel,” Fleischer said Monday as the U.S. leader enjoyed a month-long vacation on his beloved Prairie Chapel ranch near the tiny Texas town of Crawford.

Fleischer said the determination was akin to similar pronouncements regarding the 1991 Gulf War waged by Bush’s father, former president George Bush, and the strikes former president Bill Clinton ordered against Serb forces in Kosovo in 1999.

He said the lawyers based their ruling on three factors: the U.S. Constitution, which names the president commander in chief of the U.S. military; the 1991 Gulf War resolution by Congress; and last year’s congressional resolution approving the use of force in the war on terrorism.

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup opinion poll showed public support for a U.S. ground invasion of Iraq slipped from 74 percent in November to 53 percent last week. Only 20 percent of those surveyed favored sending troops to topple Saddam without allied support.

Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the U.S. ambassador from Saudi Arabia - which publicly joined Syria in warning against attacking Iraq - may discuss the issue Tuesday when the diplomat visits the president on his ranch, said Fleischer.

Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a leader of the Iraqi National Congress, said that U.S. funding, co-ordination and other preparations were well advanced for action, which he believed would take place sooner rather than later. “(Washington) made it clear there will be no turning back,” he said, reported U.K. newspaper The Times.

Sharif Ali and other Iraqi opposition leaders met Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, and Rumsfeld a few weeks ago as well as holding a videoconference with Cheney. “We were very encouraged by our meetings in Washington earlier this month,” he told The Times.