CrossFireArabia
By Ismail Al Sharif
I did what I thought was my duty – Dick Cheney.
Because of him, more than five million people were killed, and more than 38 million displaced from their homes in what was falsely called the “War on Terror.” And now, the man, mainly responsible for those crimes has passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, after his heart stopped beating: And I thought he had no heart. If there were any justice in this world, he should have died alone in a cold, empty cell.
Dick Cheney, Vice-President to George W. Bush, who effectively wore the mantle of the President, the true ruler behind the scenes, has passed away. Cheney is considered the chief architect of the expansion of American militarism and one of the most bloodthirsty criminals in modern history. He cast his heavy shadow on one of humanity’s darkest periods, leaving behind an indelible stain of shame on the face of humankind.
Cheney was one of the key architects of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which laid the foundation for the idea that the United States should be the sole dominant power in the world, leading a unipolar system through which it would dictate its will to other nations using economic pressure and military force. This approach persists to this day, as America has never ceased waging wars and instigating conflicts since then.
The events of 11 September, 2001, presented him with a golden opportunity to implement his agenda. His influence within the Bush administration soared to unprecedented levels, and he was the one who coined the term “dark side,” which granted intelligence agencies broad powers to spy on citizens and use torture in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He was the first to promote the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion, claiming that the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein was essential for American national security, while his true aim was to seize Iraqi oil. Meanwhile, his company, Halliburton, was reaping enormous profits from the war and securing lucrative contracts, leaving him with a fortune estimated at $150 million.
When one of his top aides, Joseph Wilson, publicly questioned his account of Iraq, Cheney retaliated with a covert act of revenge: Leaking the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, effectively ending her career. Lewis Libby was later convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury before receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
Cheney was also the architect of Paul Bremer’s appointment as President Bush’s special envoy to Iraq after the invasion. Bremer meticulously implemented the neoconservative agenda, privatizing state-owned enterprises and reversing the 1972 nationalization of oil, granting international oil companies sweeping concessions for exploration and investment. Cheney was rewarded by having control of the oil. A 2003 CNN report concluded the war in Iraq was about oil, and that the real winners were the major oil companies.
History later proved that all of Cheney’s justifications for the war were false. No weapons of mass destruction were found, while millions of children and women perished, and thousands of American soldiers were killed defending the interests of the elite and Zionists in a senseless and unjustified war. Thus, Cheney became one of the most controversial figures in modern American history.
Cheney died, but his legacy did not. The ideology of hegemony and militarism that he instilled still governs power politics today. His body is gone, but he left behind a generation of monsters who continue to implement his agendas of murder, tyranny, and greed. Perhaps the recent war on Gaza is the truest testament to the fact that his ideology was not buried with him.
There is no solace in Cheney’s death, for his crimes are too horrific to be contained by fire, just as is the case with Netanyahu and all those who follow in his footsteps.
This article by Ismail Al Sharif was originally written in Arabic for the Addustour daily.
Saleem Ayoub Quna
