Something else about the whole business... remember that Riker let a kid die just to keep a promise. By contrast, I pretty much unfailingly keep my promises, but had I been Riker in that situation, that kid (and all the other casualties) would have been walking around before you could say "Bite me, Jean-luc." The fact that Riker didn't indicates that he takes his integrity dead (literally) seriously. He would not be stretching the truth here.
