Cheney is Finally Dead

Dick Cheney, one of the major architects of the Iraq War that killed thousands of people (based on his lies about weapons of mass destruction) is now dead.  Cheney most infamously served as vice president to former President George W. Bush for eight years, in which the two presided over the war, the collapse of the American economy, and numerous scandals (like the administration’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans).

Cheney became vice president after the Supreme Court chose Bush in the fall of 2000, legitimizing the Republican Party’s tactics in the state of Florida that invalidated thousands of Democratic votes.  Cheney was regarded by many as the “brains” behind the Bush White House.

It was on their watch that America suffered the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history on Sept. 11, 2001. While the Bush-Cheney administration received a classified memo indicating that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network intended to launch attacks against America, the administration chose not to take any overt action to thwart the terrorist threat.

Almost immediately, the Bush-Cheney administration began pushing for a war in Iraq, based on the lie that Saddam Hussein was sympathetic to bin Laden and was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Cheney was the front man for the WMD campaign, famously touting the purported use of “aluminum tubes” by Saddam as evidence that he was building a weapons program.  But that was all a lie-- there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 ultimately killed at least 200,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,492 American soldiers, with an additional 32,292 service members wounded. The war cost the American people at least $728 billion and further destabilized the Middle East in ways that still reverberate today.  This debacle was the pinnacle of Cheney’s pathetic career as a leader, and he never expressed regret for his lies and the mistakes that led to the years-long disaster.

In March 2008, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz asked him about the disastrous war.  “Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting,” Raddatz said, “and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.”

“So?” Cheney shockingly replied.  Raddatz followed up: “So—you don't care what the American people think?”

“No,” Cheney said, “I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”  To the bitter end, Cheney didn’t care what people thought of his war-- or the death and destruction it needlessly caused.

Along with pushing the fake case for war, Cheney also advocated for the use of reprehensible and counterproductive military tactics like torture.   Cheney defended the use of waterboarding in a 2014 interview, even though the tactic and other so-called enhanced interrogation tactics had long been internationally condemned and shown to be useless in gathering intelligence.  “I’d do it again in a minute,” he said of his role in creating the country’s torture program. 

In fact, despite its promises, its wars, and its ineffective interrogation techniques, the Bush-Cheney administration failed to capture bin Laden and bring him to justice.  That task fell to President Barack Obama.

The Bush-Cheney team was also in charge when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, killing thousands as many more residents suffered from a slow and disorganized response orchestrated by former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who had more experience with Arabian horses than natural disasters.

In 2008, as the nation faced an economic crisis triggered by subprime mortgage loans, Cheney made a statement symptomatic of the administration’s uncaring attitude.  “We don't want to interfere with the basic, fundamental working of the markets,” Cheney said.  As a result of that inept indifference, the country and the world were thrown into chaos, and while the Bush-Cheney administration bailed out banks, millions of regular Americans lost their homes and jobs, and the global economy entered what came to be known as the Bush Recession.

When he wasn’t pushing lies about WMD's, promoting torture, and ignoring natural disasters and looming economic crises, Cheney was pursuing leisure activities like “accidentally” shooting his friend.  During a 2006 hunting trip, Cheney shot lawyer Harry Whittington, whose body was embedded with birdshot pellets and who suffered a minor heart attack as a result. Amazingly, when he left the hospital, Whittington apologized to Cheney, his shooter.

In 2011 Cheney released his memoirs, which were poorly received.  Former Bush administration officials and prominent Republicans (such as Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and John McCain) said at the time that Cheney "did not accurately recount their private conversations"  (i.e., Cheney lied).  When all is said and done, Cheney was a poor leader and a stain on this country's history-- his achievements were primarily based on conniving, cheating and corruption.  If I could attend his funeral, it would only be so that I could tamp down the dirt.  Good riddance!