The White House and former Vice President Dick Cheney are at war again – this time over the real war in Afghanistan.

The White House Thursday shot back at Cheney assertion that Obama is “dithering” while debating a quest for more troops in Afghanistan, countering that the Bush-Cheney administration sat on a similar request for 8 months without acting.

"What Vice President Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public,” Gibbs said.

“I think we've all seen what happens when somebody doesn't take that responsibility seriously," he added in a veiled reference to the Bush administrations decision to go to war in Iraq on the false assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Moreover, Gibbs said, it was really Former President George W. Bush and Cheney who dithered, sitting on a request for more troops for more than 8 months without granting it.

"I think it's pretty safe to say that the vice president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan, even more curious given the fact that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's, for more than eight months, a resource request filled by President Obama in March,” Gibbs said.

“I find it interesting that he's blaming us for something that he didn't see fit to do over, best I can tell, seven years of a war in Afghanistan," he added.

Gibbs was reacting to Cheney’s charge in a Wednesday night speech that Obama is dragging his feet in weighing a new strategy for Afghanistan.

"The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger," Cheney said. “It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

"Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," Cheney said.

The former vice president also disputed the suggestion from Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the new administration had to start from scratch on Afghanistan policy. Cheney said the outgoing administration briefed the Obama team during the transition.

“They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt," Cheney said.

Gibbs noted that it was Obama, not Bush or Cheney, who ecided to send additional troops to Afghanistan. Obama ordered 21,000 more troops in March. Obama now is weighing a request for more troops.