How's that for "supporting the troops"?

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This part absolutely kills me. Who bears the burden of this war? The soldiers and their families who lose sleep every night praying their loved ones don't get blown up? Or President Bush, who sleeps soundly in the safest environment possible, isolated as could be from the horrors of war? What say you, Dick?

Noting the burden placed on military families, the vice president said the biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush, who made the decision to commit US troops to war, and reminded the public that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

And when confronted with the reality of stop loss -- the policy that send soldiers back three or four times past their original obligations -- Cheney predictably takes a page from 9iu11ani playbook and plays the 9/11 card:

"A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments. For example, 9/11 stimulated a lot of folks to volunteer for the military because they wanted to be involved in defending the country."

I can only speak for myself here, but I reckon that many of the brave young men and women who volunteered after 9/11 did so with the expectation that they would be hunting down those that actually attacked us that day; not that they would be put in an impossible situation (in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack on us) where they are expected to mediate a religious civil war that has raged for thousands of years. In fact, it's a disservice to their heroic sacrifice to expect them to do so. Then again, people like Dick Cheney and George Bush know absolutely nothing about heroism and sacrifice.