Parsing the definition of "throes"

Dick Cheney attempts to perform a public act of cunning linguist on CNN:

On Iraq and the insurgency's "last throes":

"If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period, the throes of a revolution," he said. "The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand that if we're successful at accomplishing our objective -- standing up a democracy in Iraq -- that that's a huge defeat for them.

"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story."

On where Osama Bin Laden (remember him? Of course not; it's DEMOCRATS who are the real terrorists, right? He's just Bush's old friend) might be hiding:

"...we've got a pretty good idea of the general area" where al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is hiding, but he said, "I don't have the street address."

Asked to identify the general area, Cheney demurred, saying he wouldn't talk about intelligence matters. Pressed on when bin Laden might be captured, he said, "What, do you expect me to say: Three weeks from next Tuesday?"

"I'm convinced eventually we'll get him,"
we've got a pretty good idea of the general area" where al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is hiding, but he said, "I don't have the street address."

Asked to identify the general area, Cheney demurred, saying he wouldn't talk about intelligence matters. Pressed on when bin Laden might be captured, he said, "What, do you expect me to say: Three weeks from next Tuesday?"

"I'm convinced eventually we'll get him."

Sounds like Rumsfeld talking about how the WMD are in the area around Tikrit, doesn't it?

And who knew that Gitmo was really a 5-star luxury Caribbean resort?

"They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want,"

I don't know which is worse...the probability that he's so evil he can say all this crap with a straight face, or the possibility that he's insanely delusional enough to actually believe it.