Reply #7: I thought I had an answer a moment ago - lies

[Snow]

especially on the part of Cheney & colleagues, who really want to enrich themselves & their friends, nothing more. Well, a little more - as long as they're at it they want to make the world a better place in which to enrich themselves. I think they know this, admit it honestly to themselves and amongst themselves, and cynically snicker at the folks who believe the lies they're putting out. That was my initial thought.

But there's some BS going on as well. It might be something like, they would really do better in terms of self-enrichment if they didn't always go for the completely greedy option in every situation. To simplify vastly, if you run a company you can run a sweatshop, overprice your goods & enrich yourself; or you can pay & treat your employees well, resulting in better production of a better product and the same degree of enrichment over the longer term. That's not quite what I'm getting at, but it's close, and maybe it isn't really BS because these fools really do believe the way they act is the best way to go. Dunno. Anyone wants to lend a hand, here, jump right in.