...in a new interview with ABC television on Friday, Cheney said that patriotism had nothing to do with his comments. Instead, he charged Democrats were trying to win public support by criticizing the war without taking responsibility for the repercussions.

"[Pelosi] accused me of questioning her patriotism. I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment," Cheney said during a trip to Australia.

"If you are going to advocate a course of action that basically is withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, then you don't get to just do the fun part of that, that says, well we're going to get out and appeal to your constituents on that basis. You have to be accountable for the results. . . .

"The point I made and I'll make it again is that al-Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. . . . That if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we'll quit and go home. . . . If we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of al-Qaeda. I said it and I meant it."

Here is what the 9/11 Commission determined:

We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.

Here's what the CIA says:

There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says.

The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday.

The administration appears to be relying on a little note within the Iraq Study Group's findings.

If the situation continues to deteriorate...Al Qaeda could win a propaganda victory and expand its base of operations.

Let's first of all go to the opening sentences of the Iraq Survey Groups's findings:

The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success...

Take a look at the psychological operation known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The al-Qaeda presence in Iraq is mostly hype, as can seen by the following Thomas Ricks scoop from April 10, 2006 (emphasis added):

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.

For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.

In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."

"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone calls seeking comment on his remarks.

Zarqawi is dead (if he ever really existed in Iraq). So, now the propaganda campaign involves hyping, not Zarqawi, but his alleged organization: al-Qaeda in Iraq. This has been going on for a while. Let's go back to October 15, 2005:

Bush said a recently intercepted terrorist letter shows that Iraqi political progress is stymieing al Qaeda's quest for a "totalitarian empire that denies political and religious freedom."

"These terrorists are driven by an ideology that exploits Islam to serve a violent political vision," he said. But with each step that the Iraqi people take on the march toward democracy, "al Qaeda's vision for the region becomes more remote."

The intercepted terrorist letter was written from al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, to his chief deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Zawahiri, describes Iraq precisely as "the place for the greatest battle" of our day, Bush said.

"The jihad in Iraq requires several incremental goals," Zawahiri wrote. "Expel the Americans from Iraq ... . Establish an Islamic authority ... to spread its power in Iraq ... [and] extend the jihad wave" to nearby, neighboring countries.

Bush said "this letter shows that al Qaeda intends to make Iraq a terrorist haven and a staging ground for attacks against other nations, including the United States."

There is only one problem. If you scroll down to the end of the alleged Zawahiri-Zarqawi letter you will find the following:

My greetings to all the loved ones and please give me news of Karem and the rest of the folks I know, and especially:

By God, if by chance you're going to Fallujah, send greetings to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Shoot. If I were sending a letter to, say, Senator Arlen Specter, I don't think I would wrap it up by telling Specter to send greetings to himself if he happens to show up in Washington DC. This letter wasn't written to Zarqawi but the President says that it was. I sincerely doubt that it was even written by Zawahiri, but it was quoted as though it were by dozens of Republican congresspeople during the debate over a non-binding resolution. It's embarrassing when congresspeople fall for our own psychological operations (especially ones as transparently botched as the Zawahiri-Zarqawi letter).

It's time to see some Democrats get the spine and resolve to call 'bullshit' on the whole al-qaeda in Iraq argument for staying at war. It's propaganda and nothing else. If there is a major al-Qaeda base of operations, it is in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Leaving Iraq might give al-Qaeda some kind of propaganda victory...but it will only be enhanced by the words of people like Bush and Cheney that want to give them all the blame for our difficulties there. Bush and Cheney are the ones that are translating a defeat at the hands of Ba'athists into a defeat at the hands of al-Qaeda. They are to blame. Cheney is unhinged. He must be restrained.