Cheney: Legacy of Lies, Death, and Mainstream Amnesia
While outlets might now debate Cheney's Iraq War legacy, they often gloss over the tangible cost to American taxpayers and soldiers. In 2002, Cheney famously stated, 'There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,' despite intelligence suggesting otherwise. This fabricated urgency directly led to the 2003 invasion, a war that cost the U.S. an estimated $2.4 trillion,
according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, and left over 4,400 American soldiers dead. The media narrative rarely connects these dots to lost local services or veteran support. So, as the talking heads prepare their tributes, consider the domestic programs gutted to fund endless wars. Cheney, architect of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' and 'unlimited executive power,' didn't
just redefine warfare; he redefined accountability. One might wonder, how many school budgets, infrastructure projects, or healthcare initiatives evaporated into the Mesopotamian sand for a man whose policies secured record profits for defense contractors? Whose 'war on terror' ensured a perpetual pipeline of American tax dollars into the military-industrial complex he knew so well?