(CNSNews.com) - The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is blasting Vice President Dick Cheney for criticizing Kerry's statement that America should fight a "more sensitive" war on terror.

"A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans," Cheney said in remarks Thursday. "The men who beheaded Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our sensitivity."

"Dick Cheney's desperate misleading attacks now have him criticizing George Bush's own words, who called for America to be 'sensitive about expressing our power and influence,'" said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer in a statement.

"[What] Dick Cheney doesn't understand is that arrogance isn't a virtue, especially when our country is in danger. Alienating allies makes it harder to hunt terrorists and bring them justice. If Dick Cheney learned this lesson instead of spending his time distorting John Kerry's words, this country would be a safer place," Singer added.

Cheney was referring to a statement Kerry made last week at a minority journalists' convention, in which Kerry said he "can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."

Cheney said Thursday, "President Lincoln and General Grant didn't wage sensitive wars. Nor did President Roosevelt or Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur."

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