On this the fifth anniversary of 9/11, while we take time to remember all those lost in the tragic attacks, we learn that Cheney has decided to admit that although the country went to war in Iraq on false intelligence and he himself misjudged the Iraqi insurgency, if he had to do it all over again he would. He said this on Meet The Press, where Tim Russert once again served as the resident buffoon, neglecting to follow-up numerous times concerning Cheney's continued willingness to lie despite the above admissions.

Of course, as for the admissions, Cheney can conveniently portray the false intel realization as something learned now in looking back, which is a lie. We know that during the build-up to the Iraq war there was ample good evidence that was buried or suppressed in favor of the false intel! With Richard Clarke stating he was told repeatedly to go back and find anything to support attacking Iraq, and the multiple reports of Powell and others knowing the "yellow cake" inclusion was bogus intel and used anyway, and then the Downing Street memos providing evidence of Bush/Cheney building policy around an Iraqi attack.

And as for Cheney misjudging the strength of the insurgency, we know there was ample written and voiced support prior to the war from military personnel and related think tanks stating that the troop level needed to be three to four times larger than the 100,000 sent troops to properly deal with the expected insurgency. The fact that Cheney now says he simply misjudged is outrageous.

The entire interview would be astounding if it were anyone else but Cheney. Russert shows him a poll that has 54% of Americans believing we're creating more terrorists with the Iraq war, as opposed to 15% who believe we're eliminating more, and Cheney simply dismisses it, "I can't buy that." These guys just toss that which they disagree with whether it be opinions or facts. He later states that Al Qaeda and our "adversaries" want to test our will so that "the American people don’t have the stomach for the fight." That's bullsh*t. Americans have always had the will to fight, as we did right after 9/11. If anything has weakened that resolve and brought into question any will to fight it's been the debacle in Iraq. Al Qaeda or any other terrorist threat has not caused the American public to go weak-kneed; instead, it's been our own leaders! To a large extent, by working to cripple the will to fight in this country through the incompetent management of Iraq, it's also kept Americans frightened and disillusioned -- potentially helping the GOP at the polls, as it at least has in the past.

Russert cites the much-quoted poll that the majority of Americans now believe Iraq is not part of the war on terror, and Cheney 1) disagrees ("I beg to differ"), again simply dismissing any poll he disagrees with, as if the public is stupid and ignorant when it's convenient (funny how this same public was so intelligent when such polls were to Cheney's liking), and 2) he spends the bulk of his time making the case that the world is better off without Saddam in power. Duh! No one has ever or will ever argue that Saddam was a great guy, but that still doesn't address the question of relating war in Iraq -- a country with zero ties to 9/11 -- with the war on terror.

As for WMD in Iraq, the inspectors reported repeatedly that they found nothing, and it appears as if they weren't lying based on the fact we've found nothing since but some rusty old weapons used in the Iran/Iraq war. Yet, Cheney doesn't mention that intel rather stating "clearly the intelligence that said he did was wrong. That was the intelligence all of us saw, that was the intelligence all of us believed." Again, they selectively believed some intel -- and tossed the rest.

I could go on and on with more examples of lies and misrepresentations in that interview. Please read it for yourself. Wow, they seemingly come clean on some things only to lie some more.