Dick Cheney, Dead at 84: Still Better Than the Company He Kept
Al Jazeera reports Dick Cheney, former Vice President, has passed at 84, calling him the 'controversial power behind the Bush throne.' 'Controversial' is certainly one word for the man who championed the Iraq War, dismissed the Geneva Conventions, and profited handsomely from the ensuing carnage. The media's sanitization of figures like Cheney consistently omits that his public service career
segued directly into corporate leadership at Halliburton—a company that then secured billions in no-bid contracts for the very wars he helped engineer. (See: Halliburton's reported $39.5 billion in federal contracts during the Iraq War, per the Center for Public Integrity.) While Al Jazeera notes his 'rare clout,' they neglect to mention the direct link between that clout and the profits reaped by
defense contractors during the 'Global War on Terror.' (That's some historical amnesia.) One might wonder: how many 'controversial powers' get to wage wars from behind a desk, then line their pockets from the destruction? Perhaps the only real 'controversy' is how easily such architects of disaster are forgiven, or merely deemed 'powerful,' rather than held accountable for the millions displaced
and hundreds of thousands dead in the wake of their policy decisions.