Except for why the years passed and the situation only deteriorated. Any one of your points might be defensibl on its own, but not all of them, not that many of them, and not after so long. Cheney just wants more time to justify his errors and his failures and to cover up his crimes, but time is paid for dearly in blood and money, neither of which he has ever spent any of his own. All he cares about is his reputation, his place in history. At least his President now has the decency to keep his mouth shut.

Maybe its time for the Cheneys and their apologists to adopt their own business rhetoric and "cut their losses", and "stop throwing good money after bad". People make mistakes. I supported the war too, at the beginning, it never occurred to me my government would lie to me that cynically and systematically. But it becomes intolerable when the lies continue long after the truth is out.

Oh, and BTW, I almost forgot about the torture, the waterboarding and the renditions and the legal gymnastics this man's gang of scrubbed and perfumed lawyers and public relations hacks engaged in to cover their slimy asses. The man, and everything he represents, is an obscenity. He is indeed a war criminal, and I am not just being rhetorical. He should be prosecuted.