While some from both parties have criticized President Barack Obama’s strategy of using drone strikes against terrorists, former Vice President Dick Cheney is not one of them.
“I think it’s a good program, and I don’t disagree with the basic policy that the Obama administration is pursuing in those regards,” he told
CBS News' Charlie Rose in an interview aired Tuesday.
In particular, Cheney defended the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen living in Yemen.
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“He was clearly part of al-Qaida,” he said.
Deciding on the drone killings is simply part of Obama's job, Cheney added.
“When we hire the president of the United States he gets to live in a big house, makes all that money — he’s getting paid to make difficult decisions,” he said.
To be sure, that doesn’t mean Cheney supports Obama’s overall defense policy.
“I’m very concerned about what I see happening in the national security arena,” he said. “I think the administration’s policies are very flawed. I think the president’s performance in the international arena, in the Middle East and so forth, is worse than many of my friends and colleagues deem his domestic policies.”
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