Dick Cheney has no real comeback about increased Iranian nuclear activity on his watch

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday found himself in an awkward conversation with Fox News' Chris Wallace on the subject of Iranian nuclear expansion. "You and President Bush, the Bush-Cheney administration, dealt with Iran for eight years," Wallace noted, during which time "Iran went from zero known [nuclear] centrifuges in operation to more than 5,000."

As Wallace pressed him as to whether he'd left a mess for the Obama administration, Cheney said that he doesn't "think of it that way," suggesting that the 2003 invasion of Iraq temporarily cowed Iran into ceasing nuclear activity, and claiming that Iranian nuclear development only occurred "on Obama's watch." When Wallace pushed back with the fact that the centrifuges topped 5,000 before Obama ever took office, Cheney conceded the point but argued that his administration "did a lot" to control arms development in Iran by threatening invasion.

The nuclear centrifuges in question are not necessarily indicators that Iran was or is pursuing nuclear weaponry. In 2012, 16 American intelligence agencies agreed Iran was not building the bomb, a conclusion which matched the findings of a 2007 report.

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