Former VP Dick Cheney blasts Obama on foreign policy

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney attacked President Obama's foreign policy in an interview with Fox News, accusing him of reducing U.S. influence.

Cheney spoke Wednesday to Sean Hannity, one of the most rightwing Fox hosts. He said he had spoken to many in the Middle East about Obama's leadership.

"They all are absolutely convinced that the American capacity to lead and influence in that part of the world has been dramatically reduced by this president," Cheney said. "We've got a problem with weakness, and it's centered right in the White House."

Cheney called Obama "a very, very weak president."

Obama, in a speech Wednesday at the West Point commencement, laid out a vision of foreign policy that would set a high bar for military intervention unless U.S. interests are directly affected. The president said that the United States, battling with terrorists who are now in small, weakly-linked affiliate groups, needs to partner with other countries and proposed a $5 billion fund to build those partnerships.

Cheney blasted Obama for planning to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of his presidency.

"It's as though he wasn't even around when 9/11 happened," he said.