By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney insisted on Friday that America must not turn its back on Iraq, even as the Bush administration considers a course change in the war after voters vented anger over it in this month's elections. "Some in our country may believe in good faith that retreating from Iraq would make America safer. Recent experience teaches the opposite lesson," Cheney said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Cheney was speaking publicly for the first time since the Nov. 7 elections in which voter anger over Iraq helped oust President George W. Bush's Republicans from power in Congress. He praised departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a reformer and "one of the great public servants of the age," drawing applause from the audience. Cheney is a close ally of Rumsfeld. Some analysts believe Bush's announcement of the Pentagon chief's dismissal the day after the election may signal diminished influence for Cheney, seen by some historians as one of the most influential vice presidents in modern history. Cheney made no mention of the man Bush nominated to succeed Rumsfeld, Robert Gates. Bush said he turned to Gates, who headed the CIA during the president's father's administration, because he wanted a "fresh perspective" on the war. Underscoring his openness to a new approach in Iraq, Bush has also said he is eager to hear the recommendations of an independent panel led by former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-congressman Lee Hamilton that is weighing alternative strategies. The commission is expected to report its findings within the coming weeks, likely next month. Cheney, echoing Bush, said adjustments in military tactics were always under review. "We'll be flexible. We'll do all we can to adapt to conditions on the ground. We'll make every change needed to do the job," Cheney said, reiterating the current U.S. strategy of helping to train Iraqi forces with the aim of eventually turning over security to them. WARNS ABOUT AL QAEDA But the vice president said pulling out of Iraq would only embolden militant groups like al Qaeda, which he warned were aiming to find a safe haven to plot attacks against the United States. "The notion that we can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option that we cannot indulge after 9/11," Cheney said. "To get out before the job is done would convince the terrorists, once again, that free nations will change our policies, forsake our friends, and abandon our interests whenever we are confronted with violence and blackmail," he added. Democrats set to take over the House and Senate in January are trying to boost pressure on Bush to overhaul his strategy in Iraq, where 2,864 U.S. troops have died and sectarian violence is raging. The incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin of Michigan, wants to see a phased pullout of troops beginning in four to six months. The vice president, who attended post-election meetings hosted by Bush to find common ground with Democrats, made only a veiled reference to the Nov. 7 vote, saying nothing had changed in the past two weeks to prevent Bush from pushing ahead with his aim of appointing conservative judges.
