Cheney: Obama has abandoned U.S. allies

Former Vice President Dick Cheney came out swinging Thursday against President Barack Obama's foreign policy, telling a crowd of some 800 business leaders in Woodbury that the United States has abandoned its allies in the Middle East.

Cheney, 71, speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, sharply criticized the administration's policies in Iraq, Iran and Libya.

"Our friends no longer count on us and our enemies no longer fear us," said Cheney, a Republican who served under President George W. Bush from 2001-09.

Cheney, who had a heart transplant seven months ago, looked and sounded fit during a 90-minute question-and-answer session with LIA president and chief executive Kevin Law.

Cheney argued that Obama, a Democrat, withdrew too many U.S. military resources from Iraq, failed to prevent Iran from gaining the capacity to build a nuclear weapon and mishandled the response to last month's terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed.

"I worry that at a time when it's more important than ever for the United States to have the capacity to influence events on that side of the world, we are pulling out," Cheney said. "To our allies, it looks like the U.S. is turning its back on the Middle East."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Cheney's remarks.

Cheney also gave a passionate defense of the war in Iraq, in which more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers were killed between 2003 and 2012. He argued that the Bush administration had intelligence showing that Saddam Hussein had a long-running relationship with al-Qaida.

Cheney said the war was worth the cost.

"I think we did exactly the right thing," he said.

Cheney also criticized Obama's energy policies, including subsidizing green energy companies while blocking construction of the Keystone pipeline from Canada to multiple locations in the United States. "It just doesn't make any sense," Cheney said.

Cheney, a supporter of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said he expects the former Massachusetts governor to beat Obama narrowly in the Nov. 6 election. "And, I am an expert on close elections," Cheney joked in a reference to Bush's narrow Electoral College victory over Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 election.

In the afternoon's most personal moment, Cheney discussed his heart transplant last March.

He called his recovery "nothing short of a miracle."

"I wake up every morning with a big smile on my face realizing I've got another day that I never expected to see," Cheney said. "Obviously I've been blessed."