'No American president has done more to weaken the US': Ex-VP Cheney delivers stinging rebuke to Obama in searing op-ed on 15th anniversary of 9/11

• e-mail

Dick Cheney, the former vice president, accused President Barack Obama of doing more than any of his predecessors to 'aid America's adversaries' and 'hobbling our defenses' against Islamic terrorist groups.

In a stinging Wall Street Journal op-ed co-written with his daughter, Wisconsin congressional candidate Liz Cheney, the former vice president said that Obama's policies have emboldened terrorist organizations and hostile terror-supporting countries.

Dick Cheney is widely regarded as the driving force behind the Bush administration's foreign policy interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The United States marks 15 years since the attacks on Sunday.

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) was harshly criticized in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by former VP Dick Cheney and his daughter, Wisconsin congressional hopeful Liz Cheney (right)

'President Obama has been more dedicated to reducing America's power than to defeating our enemies,' the Cheneys wrote.

'He has enhanced the abilities, reach and finances of our adversaries, including the world's leading state sponsor of terror, at the expense of our allies and our own national security,' the vice president and his daughter wrote.

'He has overseen a decline of our own military capabilities as our adversaries' strength has grown.'

Obama was also faulted by the former vice president and his daughter for what they say is his dangerous downsizing of American armed forces.

'By reducing the size and strength of our forces, he has ensured that future wars will be longer, and put more American lives at risk,' they wrote.

The Cheneys also took Obama to task for cancelling the 'enhanced interrogation program' – the controversial detention and interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Almost 3,000 Americans were killed in a coordinated terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The World Trade Center (above) burns moments before collapsing after a plane collided into it

Before taking office, Obama vowed to close down the U.S.-run detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Despite his promise, however, the administration has been unable to completely shut down the prison due to stiff opposition from Congress.

Just months before Obama steps down, the prison population at Gitmo stands at 61, according to Fox News.

Since 2002, the U.S. has detained 780 suspected terrorists at the facility, according to the New York Times.

Most of the detainees have been sent to 59 different countries.

'As he released terrorists to return to the field of battle, Mr. Obama was simultaneously withdrawing American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan,' the Cheneys wrote.

Then-president George W. Bush (far right), his vice president, Cheney (second to right), White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice confer on 9/11

'He calls this policy 'ending wars.' Most reasonable people recognize this approach as losing wars.'

The op-ed also goes on to accuse Obama of squandering President George W. Bush's achievements in stabilizing Iraq and of kowtowing to Iran.

'President Obama and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were so concerned with pleasing Iran's ruling mullahs that they were willing to overlook the American blood on Iranian hands and decades of Iran's activities as the world's leading state sponsor of terror,' the Cheneys wrote.