American Vice
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

Those curious to probe America’s slippage on the world stage would be well-advised to see the new movie biopic, “Vice”, on the rise to power of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney was leading the life of a wastrel in his home state of Wyoming until he was read the riot act by his ambitious fiancé and later wife, Lynne Cheney. He buckled down, finished college, and went to Washington as a congressional intern on Capitol Hill, where he connected with Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (later US Defense Secretary under George Bush, Sr) who mentored him.
When the raw George Bush, Jr assumed the US Presidency in 2001, as his Vice President, the wily Cheney became the power behind the throne.
In the panic, chaos, and confusion of 9/11 later that year, Cheney saw an opportunity. Exploiting weaknesses in the US system, Cheney was able to manipulate the White House and also magnify, and even falsify, national security threats.
Cheney’s rise also synchronized with the influence of think-tanks like Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, CATO Institute, and FOX TV, which parroted, more or less, the same line.
Cheney encouraged a belligerent posture despite never having experienced military service, in fact, avoiding it. Immediately prior to his Vice Presidency, Cheney served from 1995 to 2000 as CEO of the energy giant, Halliburton, which the movie depicts stood to profit from the US invasion of Iraq, with its huge oil resources. A February 16, 2004 article on Vice President Cheney and Halliburton, by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker magazine concluded: “The Bush Administration’s war on terror has become a source of substantial profit for Halliburton”, becoming the “biggest private contractor for American forces in Iraq”, receiving “contracts worth some eleven billion dollars for its work there.”
Cheney had the guile to give advice in a measured and quiet way and was also a proponent of water-boarding and other torture tactics.
The movie cites an old warning: “Beware the quiet man. For while others speak, he watches. And while others act, he plans. And when they finally rest…he strikes.”
Cheney posited that a US president through “unitary executive theory” has absolute authority. In effect, he became ‘co-president’ basking in the fact that people seek simple answers to complicated issues.
Abuse of power is global. It is also an American vice.
30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is talk now of the Mexican Wall. A significant New York Times story of November 3, 2018, depicts US law enforcement agencies taking their eyes off the ball, in that they gnawed at the gnat of fringe Muslim radicalism while swallowing the camel of white supremacist extremism embedded in the mainstream.
Measurable results now from Afghan and Iraqi misadventures reveal failure. Both occurred under Dick Cheney’s watch.
This movie – which won a 2019 Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture” on January 6 for Christian Bale’s portrayal of Dick Cheney – has been well-received. “Vice” is a dire warning about the dangers of public inattention and ignoring facts –which makes it easier to mislead and abuse power.