Cheney was Secretary of Defense for four years under Bush I, during a small adventure you may remember called Desert Storm. I doubt this was the first time he's

Cheney was Secretary of Defense for four years under Bush I, during a small adventure you may remember called Desert Storm. I doubt this was the first time he's ever had to make a life or death call. In the article he also mentions training they went through to prepare for a Soviet nuclear attack, where you'd be playing with the lives of billions of people. In short, this wasn't his first rodeo. Trolley Problem aside, there's a clear "right" answer in terms of damage to the country which is ostensibly what he's trying to optimize for. 40 people dead in a field is a lot better than hundreds dead and a national symbol (White House? Congress?) destroyed.