Vice President Dick Cheney
It has been no secret in Washington that Dick Cheney has redefined the role of the vice president’s office in setting government policy. What may be surprising to some is that to this day Cheney’s power is largely undiminished.
Cheney is the decider for “the decider”. Cheney has influence on Bush as no vice president in the history of America has ever had over a sitting president. There are some in Washington who will say that Cheney actually has full control over Bush.
Cheney’s office operates in great secrecy. Cheney is a ruthless but extremely able man who understands that the person who controls the access and paper flow to the president also controls to a large extent the decision making process in the oval office.
George W. Bush is no match for Cheney. What Cheney wants is what Cheney usually gets.
The tremendous problem with Cheney for America is that the man has no respect for the democratic process or for the laws of the land. In his zeal to promote a strong, really imperial executive branch, Cheney feels that he and the president have the power and authority to do whatever they want to do.
While Cheney may have the best intentions of protecting America in a hostile and dangerous world, he could not possibly believe in democracy. By his actions he has proven that he believes in a dictatorship.
This smart, capable, brilliant, ruthless, man is a danger to America and to the world. His disregard for law and the constitution is unparalleled in the history of our nation for a man in high office.
Cheney has personally benefited greatly from the war in Iraq and from the never ending War on Terror. He was Halliburton’s president for five years and still holds an appreciable amount of stock in Halliburton in a not so “blind” trust.
However, my own opinion is that this is a consequence of Cheney’s actions in promoting the wars, not a preconceived goal.
No, I believe that Cheney has a vision of the world where America must exercise the use of military force to secure whatever resources we want in the world. He apparently believes that America is justified in using whatever means he deems necessary, including preemptive military strikes, torture, and spying against its own citizens, in order to achieve America’s unilateral objectives.
By his actions Cheney shows contempt for the sometimes slow and messy political ways of a democracy. In his own mind he must think that he is the ultimate patriot warrior, willing to send the sons and daughters of the average citizen off to distance lands to fight the empire’s wars.
People are mistaken when they say President George W. Bush is the most powerful and dangerous man in the world.
No, it has to be the power behind the throne, Vice President Dick Cheney.
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