Say what you will about Dick Cheney, but the architect of the Iraq invasion yesterday had the chance to walk his talk about standing tall in the face of terrorism.

And walk that talk he did.

The Vice President was fortunate not to be harmed when a suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan killed at least 23 people. Yet even though the carnage around him was substantial, the blustery Cheney seemed unfazed by the whole ordeal.

The blast did not alter the plans of the man who has always insisted that one must stand up to terrorist acts, otherwise the terrorists win. In fact, when asked if he considered changing plans to visit the country's Prime Minister Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Cheney reported that was "never an option."

Soon after details of the attack were released, Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan communicated to Reuters news service by phone that the attack was meant to target the Vice President. However, Secret Service men insisted that Cheney was not any where near the actual bomb blast that also wounded 27 others.

There seemed to be little merit to the claim as Cheney had been in a room at the sprawling Bagram air base only because bad weather had forced postponement of his trip to Kabul, the Capital of Afghanistan. The suicide attack came near the main gate of the facility.