Vice President Dick Cheney told US military academy graduates on Saturday they would have all the equipment necessary to carry out their mission in Iraq and elsewhere a day after new war funding was signed into law.
Cheney addressed graduates at the academy after President George W. Bush signed legislation on Friday providing funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following a drawn-out debate with the Democratic-controlled Congress.
"Whatever lies ahead, the United States Army will have all the equipment, supplies, manpower, training, and support essential to victory," Cheney said in a speech at West Point in New York state.
"I give you this assurance on behalf of the president. You soldier for him, and he will soldier for you," he said.
The bill signed by Bush commits 100 billion dollars to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and includes no timeline for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as demanded earlier by Democrats in Congress.
Lawmakers have accused the Bush administration of failing to provide troops with sufficient equipment and training since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Cheney, saying 70 percent of the graduates in the class of 2007 would be headed for combat duty as commissioned officers, defended the US mission in Iraq as crucial to US security and to the broader "war on terror."
"America is fighting this enemy in Iraq because that is where they have gathered. We are there because, after 9/11, we decided to deny terrorists any safe haven.
"We are there because, having removed Saddam Hussein, we promised not to allow another dictator to rise in his place. And we are there because the security of this nation depends on a successful outcome."
Cheney reminded his audience that the academy lies only 50 miles (80 kilometers) from where terrorists struck the World Trade Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001.
"For nearly six years now, the United States has been able to defeat their attempts to attack us here at home," he said.
"Nobody can guarantee that we won't be hit again."
