In the smoke and chaos of 9/11, America was grieving. People were still calling missing loved ones. Firefighters were still pulling bodies from the rubble. The country was united in shock.

But inside the rooms where real power lived, something else was already happening.

This episode reveals how Iraq entered the conversation before the fires at the Pentagon were even out. Not because of intelligence. Not because of evidence. But because the same men who had spent a decade demanding regime change saw their moment opening. The “new Pearl Harbor” they once wrote about had arrived, and they wasted no time.

Episode 4A exposes how Dick Cheney built a parallel presidency—a shadow government operating inside the White House—and how that machine seized control in the days after the attacks. While President Bush was airborne and cut off from communication, Cheney sat in the bunker with the operators he had handpicked for this exact moment.

David Addington wrote the secret memos.
Scooter Libby controlled the information pipeline.
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz pushed Iraq before Afghanistan was even stabilized.
Douglas Feith built a backdoor intel shop to produce the answers the CIA refused to give.

This wasn’t analysis. It wasn’t caution. It wasn’t confusion.
It was intent.

You’ll hear how forged documents, fabricated defectors, and debunked rumors became “evidence” for war. How Curveball’s lies were elevated above seasoned analysts. How the Niger uranium papers survived every warning flag. How aluminum tubes that nuclear experts dismissed turned into “proof” of a nuclear program. And how Ahmed Chalabi fed the Pentagon a steady diet of stories tailor-made for the invasion he wanted.

Episode 4A shows that none of this was an intelligence failure. It was an intelligence operation.

By the end of 2002, the scaffolding was finished.
The legal restraints were ripped out.
The intel process was bent beyond recognition.
The narrative was baked.

All that remained was a trusted face to sell it.
That part begins in Episode 4B.

This podcast is produced by Bring Our Troops Home, a veteran-led effort to end endless war and restore the constitutional limits on when America fights. Our work centers on Defend the Guard legislation, which requires Congress to declare war before the National Guard deploys overseas. Not an authorization. A declaration. The standard the Constitution demands.

New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. If this one hits you, share it. America cannot afford another generation that thinks Iraq was an accident.

Welcome to The Truth About Dick Cheney — The Road to Baghdad (Part 1).

Episode 3: Betrayal in the Mountains

In the days after 9/11, America was unified. The mission in Afghanistan was the clearest U.S. war objective since World War II. We had been attacked. We knew who did it. We were going after them. For a moment, everything was simple.

But that simplicity didn't last. And it didn't disappear in the mountains of Afghanistan. It disappeared in Washington.

This episode explains how a righteous mission—backed by the full weight of public support—was quietly overshadowed by a second mission that had nothing to do with 9/11. While Americans were volunteering to enlist and families were preparing for deployments, the nation's political leadership was already pivoting toward Iraq. Not because of new intelligence. Not because of a link to the attacks. But because Iraq was the war they had wanted for years.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the neoconservative bench had spent a decade arguing for preemptive strikes, regime change, and the idea that American power could reshape the world. Iraq was central to that vision. 9/11 handed them the permission slip they needed. But they couldn't sell Iraq outright in 2001—the country was focused on Afghanistan. So Afghanistan became the cover for the war they truly wanted.

Even in the first hours after 9/11, Iraq was already on the table. Notes from high-level meetings show officials pressing to tie Saddam Hussein to the attack, even though every intelligence agency said the opposite. The Pentagon began planning for Iraq long before Afghanistan was stabilized. This wasn't a response to facts. It was a hunt for talking points.

Meanwhile, troops were fighting in terrain that had swallowed armies throughout history. Afghanistan required precision, patience, and total commitment. Instead, the chain of command was split. Missions launched with limited support. Equipment shortages made no sense. Supply delays piled up. Troops on the ground could feel the difference—even if they didn't know the politics behind it.

Afghanistan didn't go sideways because the troops failed. It went sideways because the political class walked away before the mission was finished.

This episode shows how the administration blurred the two wars for the public. Words like "war on terror," "rogue states," and "WMDs" merged Afghanistan and Iraq into a single emotional storyline. Many Americans never realized the shift was happening. They believed Afghanistan was the main focus for years after Washington had already deprioritized it.

For those serving there, this disconnect felt like abandonment.

The betrayal in the title isn't about soldiers or commanders. It's about the strategic decision to treat Afghanistan as a stepping stone instead of a war that mattered. That decision doomed the mission, set the stage for two decades of frustration and loss, and laid the groundwork for a withdrawal that felt like a national gut-punch—not because troops failed, but because their leaders never gave them a complete mission to finish.

This podcast is produced by Bring Our Troops Home, a veteran-led effort to end endless war and restore constitutional limits on when America fights. Our work centers on Defend the Guard legislation—requiring Congress to declare war before the National Guard deploys to foreign battlefields. Not an authorization. A declaration. The standard the Constitution demands.

New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Share this if it hits you. America cannot afford another generation that doesn't understand how quickly a righteous war can justify a reckless one.

Welcome to The Truth About Dick Cheney - Betrayal In The Mountains.

Episode 2 of The Truth About Dick Cheney is called The War Profit Pipeline, and it digs into the part of Cheney’s story most people never learned. Before the Iraq War, before 9/11, Cheney spent years helping shape an ideology that believed American power should be used to reorder the world. This chapter looks at the rise of the neoconservative movement, the Project for a New American Century, and the blueprint they drafted for a more aggressive, preemptive foreign policy.

We walk through how Cheney placed himself inside that world, how he pulled its key figures into the Bush administration, and how their shared vision depended on giving the executive branch near-total control over war. You’ll see how the doctrine came together long before the public ever heard the arguments for invading Iraq.

We also follow Cheney into Halliburton, where he ran one of the most powerful military contractors on earth. Billions in no-bid contracts. Global operations tied directly to U.S. deployments. A business model built around conflict. When he returned to Washington as vice president, the company he had led stood ready to profit from the wars he helped push. That overlap is not a footnote. It’s central to the story this episode tells.

The War Profit Pipeline explains how ideology, influence, and industry merged in one man, then reshaped American foreign policy for a generation. If you want to understand how America ended up in two decades of war, this is the chapter you can’t skip.

This podcast is produced by Bring Our Troops Home, a veteran-led effort working to end America’s forever wars and restore the constitutional limits on when and how we send our sons and daughters into combat. Our mission centers on passing Defend the Guard legislation, which requires Congress to follow the Constitution before the National Guard can be deployed to foreign warzones. To learn more, visit BringOurTroopsHome.US.

New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. After this six-part deep dive, we continue weekly with episodes on war powers, foreign policy, National Guard deployments, state legislation, veteran issues, and the fight to bring military decisions back under constitutional control.

If this episode resonates with you, share it. America can’t afford another generation that forgets how we got here.

Welcome to The Truth About Dick Cheney.
Here’s Part 2: The War Profit Pipeline.