Morir tarde. Hay gente que muere tarde. Gente cuyo mejor acto es el de dejar de existir. Asesinos en serio y en serie a los que hemos visto pontificar, amenazar y matar o mandar en directo durante meses, décadas y años.
Es el caso de uno de esos sociópatas que mandan en USA y que, si son escogidos, es tal vez porque sus votantes también lo sean, y aquí me dejo aparte la hipocresia de "votan eso pero no lo son".
Mató a más gente que Saddam Hussein, que los talibanes y que Gaddafi. Desestablizó Asia Central, Asia Occidental (lo que ellos llaman Oriente Medio) y el Norte de África, entre otros lugares.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c511811gqr0o
Dick Cheney
Borracho, ultraderechista, creador de infelicidad, fabricante de guerras del petróleo porque él era CEO de una gran empresa de productos petroleros, esquivó ir a la guerra del Vietnam para luego mandar a un millón de soldados, negros y latinos, a morir y matar, a asesinar en nombre del petróleo, trituró el sistema de diplomacia y de tratados internacionales junto con sus jefes.
El terrorista de Estado de la Guerra contra el Terror muere tarde. Como tantos otros. Tarde tras haber matado y escupido a la humanidad durante toda su vida.
Se le destaca que aceptó el matrimonio "igualitario", osea entre homosexuales... lo hizo por pura ley del embudo, la del lado ancho pá mí y la del estrecho pá ti: su hija era lesbiana. Si no, hubiera fustigado a esos grupos como a tantos otros. Esto no lo recordaba hasa que no lo he releído.
Impulsó la letal y cara carrera armamentística cuya cara visible era el pasapodrida de Ronald Regan.
Impulsó el Estado de no-Derecho. El Estado de Derecho aplica leyes para todos. Él aplicó Guantánamo: campos de concentración para gente sin derechos, unos terroristas, otros soldados, otros solamente pasaban por ahí y ahí se quedaron toda su vida.
Trasladó presos sin derechos por los cielos y aguas de España, de la clásica España que ansía ser sierva, esclava y sumisa al gran imperio, y que apenas lanza unos "tch, tch" diplomáticos para acallar a una opinión pública cada vez más dúctil.
¿Cuántos golpes de Estado dio? ¿A cuántos pueblos robó su democracia y su libertad?
Además, por supuesto, fue el gran Geocida que decidía vetar toda norma en favor de la Naturaleza, en contra de la contaminación -él era del sucio lobby del petróleo sucio-. Se puede decir que ha sido el Gran Artífice del Cambio Climático y de la Destrucción del Planeta, apoyando sus posiciones con amenazas, armas nucleares, chantajes económicos y lo que conviniera.
Dick Cheney became one of the most powerful vice-presidents in history, during George W Bush's time in office
Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 30 January 1941.
His father worked for the US Department of Agriculture, while his mother had been a successful softball player in the 1930s.
When
he was 13, his family moved to Casper, an oil town in Wyoming. In 1959,
Cheney entered Yale on a scholarship, but failed to graduate.
He
confessed that he fell in with “some kindred souls, young men like me
who were not adjusting very well [to Yale] and shared my opinion that
beer was one of the essentials of life.”
He
went on to gain a Master's degree in political science from the
University of Wyoming but - like his future boss, George W Bush, he
continued to party.
In his early 20s, Cheney was twice convicted of drink-driving. The incidents focused his mind on the future.
"I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course," he said.
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Dick Cheney (L) and his mentor, Donald Rumsfeld (R), at the White House in 1975
In
1959, when he became eligible to be drafted for military service,
Cheney made the most of every legal avenue to avoid putting on a
uniform.
He obtained a string of
deferments, first so that he could finish his college course and then
when his new wife, Lynne became pregnant.
"I
don't regret the decisions I made," he said later. "I complied fully
with all the requirements of the statutes, registered with the draft
when I turned 18. Had I been drafted, I would have been happy to serve."
Surprisingly
this did not become a major campaign issue when he was running for the
vice-presidency, even after Cheney questioned the ability of the
Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry - himself a
Vietnam veteran - to serve as commander in chief.
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Cheney (R) was also a vital part of President Gerald Ford's team at the White House
Dick
Cheney's first taste of Washington came in 1968 when he worked for
William Steiger, a young republican representative from Wisconsin.
Legend
has it that he caught the eye of Donald Rumsfeld, former defence
secretary, then about to take over at the Office of Economic Opportunity
(OEO) under President Richard Nixon.
Rumsfeld mentored Cheney, first in the OEO, and then in the Ford White House.
When
Gerald Ford made Rumsfeld his defence secretary in 1975, Cheney found
himself chief of staff at the White House. He was just 34 years old.
Eschewing the standard limousine for his battered VW Beetle, Dick Cheney proved a popular and approachable master of ceremonies.
"He
made the system run," said Brent Scowcroft, Ford's national security
adviser. "Everybody had access to the president, but it was smooth,
orderly. He didn't try to be a deputy president."
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As a Congressman, Dick Cheney supported President Reagan's increase in defence spending
When Ford lost the presidency in 1976, Cheney returned to Wyoming and stood for its House of Representatives seat.
But, weeks into the campaign and smoking three packets of cigarettes a day, he had the first of his many heart attacks.
While
he was recuperating, Lynne continued to campaign on his behalf - and
Cheney was returned with an impressive 59% of the vote.
During
his decade in the House, he gained himself the reputation as a
drier-than-dry conservative, enthusiastically supporting Ronald Reagan's
huge Cold War increases in defence spending.
More
controversially, he opposed the release of Nelson Mandela from jail and
was one of only 21 congressmen to vote against the prohibition of
armour-piercing "cop killer" bullets.
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President George HW Bush (R) made Dick Cheney his defence secretary in 1989
Early
in 1989, he was given the chance of higher office when President George
HW Bush's nominee for defence secretary, Senator John Tower, was
forced to withdraw amid allegations of heavy drinking and womanising.
Bush
needed a congressman with a good reputation to take over at the
Pentagon. He chose Dick Cheney and the Senate approved the choice
without opposition.
Cheney's years at
defence were some of the most momentous since the end of World War Two.
The Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire collapsed and the United States
was left to rethink its whole doctrine.
Although
hawkish by nature, he oversaw a huge post-Cold War reduction in the
military budget - where the number of servicemen and women fell from 2.2
million to 1.8 million.
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Soldiers briefing Cheney, the new defence secretary, in 1989
Most of all, though, his time at the Pentagon will be remembered for the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq.
He took the lead in advocating military force against Saddam Hussein, whose troops had invaded Kuwait.
He
persuaded Saudi Arabia's King Fahd to allow the deployment of more than
400,000 United States troops on his territory in the lead-up to
Operation Desert Storm.
Dick Cheney
flew to Riyadh to plan the attack with his generals. After a five week
air campaign, coalition forces began a ground war.
Within 100 hours, Iraq's army had been routed.
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Cheney visiting American troops in Saudi Arabia during the build up to the Gulf War in 1990
Generals
Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf received the ticker-tape parades.
But Dick Cheney, as much as his soldiers, deserved credit for the
success of Desert Storm.
Bill Clinton's presidential election victory in 1992 saw Cheney leave Washington once again.
This
time he became CEO of Halliburton, a huge multinational company that is
a leading supplier of equipment to the oil industry. There he remained,
until summoned back to public life by George W Bush.
Initially,
he was asked to chair the search for someone to be vice-president. But,
having reviewed his recommendations, the young presidential candidate
asked Dick Cheney if he would join him on the ticket.
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Initially, Dick Cheney was asked to chair the search for a vice-presidential candidate - before taking on the role himself
After
the attacks on 11 September 2001, Cheney was isolated from the
president for a number of weeks - taken to an "undisclosed location" -
in order to secure the succession if George W Bush was killed.
He
was a leading advocate of US military action in both Afghanistan and
Iraq. He insisted that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass
destruction, and saw his defeat as the finishing of old business.
Cheney
was a strong supporter of waterboarding captured terrorist suspects,
declaring himself to be a "strong proponent of our enhanced
interrogation techniques".
But it was
his close links to, and long experience in Congress which made him a
new type of vice-president. Cheney kept offices in the Capitol building
as well as near the commander-in-chief, so as to be at the heart of the
legislative process.
He played an
influential role in keeping Bush's tax policies conservative, and
rolling back environmental protections that were hampering American
businesses.
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George W Bush and Dick Cheney check their watches in the Oval Office
Cheney
had the ear of the president at all times and was never slow in using
his privileged access to by-pass other senior members of the
administration.
He did so to some
effect in 2001, when he persuaded Bush to sign an order stripping
captured foreign terrorist suspects of their legal rights.
This
was to the anger of the Secretary of State, Colin Powell who first
heard about the decision when it was broadcast on the news channel, CNN.
In
October 2002, and later in July 2007, while President Bush was
undergoing medical procedures, Cheney became acting president for a few
hours under the terms of the 25th Amendment.
But his inability to shepherd legislation through Congress brought accusations that Cheney was a liability.
And,
even though George W Bush said that he would retain his running mate
for 2004, there was pressure in Republican circles to dump him.
The
president stood firm and Cheney played a central role in the decisive
victory against John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards.
AP
Cheney played a decisive role in George W Bush's re-election
There was one exception to his conservatism which emerged during the campaign.
He opposed a constitutional ban on gay marriage - supported by President Bush - because his daughter Mary was a lesbian.
Cheney
announced that - although the final decision should be left to
individual states - he was personally in favour of marriage equality.
"Freedom means freedom for everyone," he said.
His
reputation became damaged when it emerged that Halliburton had won the
contract to restore Iraq's oil industry, and that he was to receive
$500,000 in deferred compensation from the company.
More
controversy was to follow. In 2005, his former chief of staff Lewis
"Scooter" Libby was indicted on charges relating to the leaking of a CIA
agent's identity to the press.
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Dick Cheney with his wife Lynne and his youngest daughter Mary
And
in 2006, after intense pressure from politicians and the media, Cheney
was forced to take responsibility for accidentally shooting a hunting
companion.
Harry Whittington, 78, was
left with 30 pellets in his body, leading to a minor heart attack.
Cheney later called the incident "one of the worst days of my life".
The
unfortunate episode became fodder for US late-night comedians and was
seized upon by opponents as a damaging political metaphor - showing
Cheney blasting away at the wrong target.
The
vice-president also grew worried that terrorists might try and
assassinate him, by sending an electronic signal to his pacemaker -
having seen a fictional version of this plot on the TV series, Homeland.
"I
was aware of the danger that existed," he later wrote. "I knew from the
experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it
was an accurate portrayal of what was possible."
The pacemaker was taken out and replaced with one that had no connection to wifi.
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Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney in 2015. Both became leading critics of President Donald Trump
After
eight-years as vice-president, the man widely seen as the architect of
President Bush's "war on terror" left office in January 2009.
He
became a critic of the Obama administration's national security
policies, opposing plans to close the US detention centre in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
He lashed out at his
vice-presidential successor, Joe Biden, calling him "dead wrong" for
saying another attack on the scale of 11 September 2001 was unlikely.
After
a full heart transplant in 2012, he remained an active political
figure. And, despite decades working for Republican presidents, he
became a bitter opponent of President Donald Trump.
Having
initially endorsed him in 2016, Cheney was appalled by allegations of
Russian interference in the presidential election and Trump's seemingly
casual attitude towards Nato.
He
supported his older daughter, Liz, as she became a leading Republican
'never Trump' in the House of Representatives - and condemned the
refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election.
It was an action that guaranteed that he will be remembered with mixed emotions on both sides of the political aisle.
For
years, Cheney was a hero to the Republican right for his forthright
manner and dry-as-dust ideological beliefs - and reviled by the left,
who accused him of working for the interests of the oil industry.
But,
he ended up supporting gay marriage and a Democratic presidential
candidate - while his frequent attacks on Trump destroyed his
relationship with his former party.
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