From last night's Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Do you think the war was fought because the region—was it about WMD? Was it about Mideast politics? Was it about ideology?

DAMON: It kept changing when their excuses would change. They‘d go, wait, actually they don‘t have any of that stuff. They‘d go, oh, oh, well then it‘s actually about democracy. Well democracy is not going to work. We‘re just going to settle for—as long as it‘s secure. I mean, it just keeps changing.

MATTHEWS: Do you think guys like Cheney—I love to pronounce his name correctly, by the way. Do you think guys like—it‘s like a Dickensian name, Cheney. Do you think he knew he was saying stuff that wouldn‘t turn out to be true, or was he just mad dogged to fight the war?

DAMON: I‘d like to see him under oath.

MATTHEWS: I would, too. I‘d like to see him with you.

(APPLAUSE)

MATTHEWS: Do you think if you waterboarded Cheney, like in the movie, that you‘d get a different truth out of him?

DAMON: Well, there‘s two answers to that question. One is he doesn‘t strike me as the kind of person who has any real personal courage. When it was his turn to go, he didn‘t go. He deferred six times.

MATTHEWS: He said he had other priorities.

DAMON: Yes, he had other priorities. And he doesn‘t seem to have other priorities about sending other kids there and other peoples kids.

(APPLAUSE)

MATTHEWS: We‘ll be back...

DAMON: ... The second part to the answer is that I believe that if you waterboard anybody, they‘ll tell you anything and that torture is completely impractical, on top of being dishonorable. It‘s completely impractical because you can—I mean, if you torture a normal person, if you torture anybody, they‘re going to tell you whatever you want them to tell you. So if you‘re getting information that you‘re going to then use and you get it by torturing them...

MATTHEWS: ... Why is man at his worst throughout history used it then if it doesn‘t work? Why has it always been part of—going to the Middle Ages, back to ancient times. People were so cruel to each other, they get what they want out of them. Why do they do it if it doesn‘t work?

DAMON: I don‘t know. I don‘t do it.

(LAUGHTER)

First, I would direct Matt Damon to Nick Lemann's "Letter from Washington" in the February 17, 2003 New Yorker.  The complex arguments made for the invasion of Iraq were detailed by a liberal writer for a liberal magazine before the invasion and they haven't changed.  Matt Damon may not read much, but a lot of people do.

Next, was Damon aware that in questioning the Vice President's "real courage" for using Vietnam-era deferments, he was perhaps making Peace Corps alum Chris Matthews a bit uncomfortable?  Would Damon apply same logic apply to Bill Clinton?  (There's a question Chris might have wanted to offer up.)

Instead we get inane questions and the incomprehensible aside that "Cheney" is "Dickensian."

The vice president has been in public service of one sort or another for most of his adult life, including continuous service from his 1978 election to Congress through his term as Secretary of defense during which time the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended.  He has been vice president from the beginning of the war against Islamic jihadism.

Damon began his acting career at approximately the same time Cheney left DoD.  He has never been other than an actor.  We do not have Damon's tax returns, so we cannot compare income levels, or charitable impulses, but I am betting that Damon has made more and given away far far less.

The diminishment of public service by air-headed lefties is commonplace.  But Matthews knows better, and should have called Damon on it.

UPDATE:  Damon violates the first rule of holes.  From deeper in the iinterview:

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Meghan Wright, I‘m from Richmond, Virginia and I was just—this question is both for Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Damon. I was just wondering, would either of you go to war right now? Not right now, I guess, but—would you go to war if you were asked?

DENIRO: Well that‘s such a complex question.

(LAUGHTER)

DENIRO: I ...

MATTHEWS: If you were drafted?

DENIRO: Well, I don‘t know, that‘s another thing about the draft and so on, if it ever would come up again. I mean, I was for going to Iraq originally and then I saw, I realized that when you—we went in and we didn‘t know how to like deal with it once we were there.

We just thought they‘d all cheer us and we‘d be out and then they‘d want democracy. We‘re dealing with—we were just talking about before—the thousands of years old cultures that have all their in-fighting, whatever. I mean, we can‘t come in unless we have a real plan or strategy and I never thought that.

DAMON: There is this great book that just came out about that called “Imperial Life in the Emerald City.” That‘s definitely a book worth reading, just about that.

We kind of blundered in there with the best intentions, but nevertheless without a plan. So, but in terms of your question, I agree with Bob that it‘s a complex question. It would depend on certain situations. I mean, I don‘t think that it‘s fair, as I said before that it seems that we have a fighting class in our country that‘s comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or you know, I don‘t think that that is fair. And if you‘re going to send people to war, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war, then that needs to be shared by everybody, you know. And if the president has daughters who are of age, then maybe they should go to.

(APPLAUSE)