PRAGUE - Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. waved off recent attacks from Dick Cheney about President Obama's handling of Afghanistan with a "Who cares?" and called his predecessor "absolutely wrong" on the question of whether the new administration was "dithering" in setting a fresh course for the war.
"I think that is absolutely wrong," the vice president said of Cheney's criticism. "I think what the administration is doing is exactly what we said it would do. And what I think it warrants doing. And that is making an informed judgment based upon circumstances that have changed … to come up with a sustainable policy that has more than one dimension."
Biden's staunch defense of the Obama administration came during a 30-minute, wide-ranging interview with The Washington Times and two other news outlets Friday in the ambassador's residence here. During the interview, the vice president provided his most extensive comments to date about the ongoing internal deliberations in Washington over the course of the Afghan conflict, saying "to fail to sit back and reassess where we are, I think, would be absolutely imprudent."
More than once, a vice president who has been derided as gaffe-prone leaned back in his plush arm chair to ponder or reconsider the remarks he was making. In one striking moment of self-censorship, he was asked about Cheney's recent suggestion that the prior administration had already left behind its own thorough assessment of the Afghanistan war. Biden at first looked piqued. "Well, look, I don't…" He paused. "Who cares what…" he began again, sounding annoyed. He paused again, looking as though he wanted to stuff the words back in his mouth.
"Well, let me put it maybe," and he paused a third time, glancing at his communications director with a smile.
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