On the evening of Monday, November 3rd, former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away at 84 years old, from complications from pneumonia and vascular disease. While Cheney had a long history of involvement in politics stretching back to 1969, he is best known for his role as Vice President in the George W. Bush administrations from 2001 to 2009 and particularly his role in advocating for the War on Iraq along with all the policies associated with the so-called Global War on Terror.
Throughout George W. Bush’s two terms as president, many regarded Cheney as the de-facto president and the brains of the operation, often crafting the most impactful policies. It is not an exaggeration to say that Cheney was likely the most powerful Vice President in United States history.
Not long after coming into power, the attacks of September 11th, 2001 took place, which gave Dick Cheney and his associates a perfect opportunity to carry out their long-term ambitions to reassert United States power in the world. As early as 1998, Dick Cheney was a part of a think tank called the Project for a New American Century which advocated for the United States to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy to establish dominance in general and to invade Iraq in particular. These neoconservatives, or neo-cons, as they called themselves, made up a significant part of the leadership of the Bush administration.
Within a month of the September 11th attacks, the neoconservatives pushed for war in Afghanistan to supposedly capture Osama Bin Laden, who was alleged to be hiding there. The two decade war on Afghanistan took the lives of an estimated 212,000 people. While Afghanistan was the first shot, the real goal was always Iraq.
Cheney, along with others in the Bush administration, consciously lied to the public about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, Iraq’s links to 9/11 or Al-Qaeda, Iraq’s threat to the national security of the United States, and more. All of the lies were to work backwards from their conclusion – that Iraq had to be invaded to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein and install a more subservient government. They created a doctrine they called “preemptive war,” which stated that the U.S. must preemptively use force against any nation that might potentially threaten the U.S. or U.S. interests. The war on Iraq that followed turned into one of the biggest crimes against humanity, taking an estimated million lives. Meanwhile, American companies were given no-bid contracts to “rebuild” Iraq and particularly its oil sector, which the U.S. invasion had badly damaged. One of these companies was Halliburton, which Cheney had been CEO of between 1995 and 2000.
In taking stock of all the bloodshed from the “Global War on Terror”, which eventually spilled outside of the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan into countries such as Libya, Syria, and Yemen, an estimated 4.5 million people have since been killed. There is arguably no person more responsible for this death and destruction other than Dick Cheney.
During this so-called global war on terror, Cheney was particularly instrumental in advocating for the use of torture as an interrogation technique. Cheney supported the abduction of people without any due process and indefinite detention in CIA black sites. Through his support for laws like the 2001 Patriot Act, he supported spying on U.S. citizens, the expansion of police surveillance practices, and the growth of more militarized police forces that threaten us today.
While his main crimes came during his tenure as Vice President under the Bush administration, the damage he caused didn’t start there. As a Congressman in the 1980s he refused to support sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid state, going so far as to call members of Mandela’s African National Congress terrorists. He also did his best to support right wing reactionary forces in their battle against the new Sandinista government in Nicaragua, even though these groups committed openly terroristic acts. And as the CEO of Halliburton, the giant oil services company based in Houston, he managed to get the company huge tax breaks and managed to squirm around U.S. sanctions against nations that the company wanted to do business with. As he was picked to become Bush’s vice president, Halliburton gave him a severance package worth at minimum $20 million, which many considered to be a direct bribe for future services. We could go on.
Towards the end of Dick Cheney’s life and as Donald Trump ascended to become the powerful political figure he is today, Cheney became an outspoken critic of Trump. He even went so far as to break with the Republicans and back Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, which the Harris campaign was happy to broadcast to signal her war hawk credentials. Cheney publicly stated last year that, “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump…He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.” These words are ironic, because he could have said some of the same things about himself. When it came to disregarding the democratic will of the voters and stealing elections, the only real difference between Cheney and Trump is that Cheney was successful in 2000 and Trump was unsuccessful in 2020!
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what words Dick Cheney might have said about Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter because Trump is the monster that Cheney helped create.
Throughout his entire political career, Cheney was a key player in the U.S. national security state and for the capitalist interests that use that state for its purposes. Cheney played a major role in normalizing the doctrine of “preemptive war” and the expansion of U.S. imperial power with which Trump now threatens virtually the entire world. Cheney played a unique role in creating the massive surveillance state and repressive apparatus that Trump now uses against his political opponents. Cheney advocated the enormous concentration of power within the executive branch that Trump now takes advantage of.
The most fitting eulogy for a cunning and cold manipulator like Dick Cheney was probably written not by anyone who actually knew him, but by an artist of the sixties who saw the costs of wars started by people like Cheney. We end with Masters of War, the 1963 song by Bob Dylan.
Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I’ll follow your casket
By the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand over your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead
