The death of Dick Cheney, the architect of the invasion of Iraq and Trump’s staunchest opponent

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, who served two presidential terms with former President George Bush, died at the age of 84 on Tuesday, according to a statement carried by the American network CNN, from his family.

The family said in a statement that Cheney passed away due to complications from pneumonia and cardiovascular disease.

His birth and upbringing

Richard Bruce Cheney, known as Dick Cheney, was born on January 30, 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in the small mountain town of Casper, Wyoming. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Wyoming. In 1964, he married Lynn Vincent and has two daughters, Liz and Mary, and seven grandchildren.

His political life
He began his political career in the 1970s, when he worked in the White House during the administration of President Gerald Ford, and served as White House Chief of Staff, before he was later elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Wyoming for more than ten years.
At the end of the 1980s, he was appointed Minister of Defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, where he oversaw the First Gulf War and emerged as one of the powerful faces of the American defense establishment.

In 2001, his political influence reached its peak, when he became Vice President of George W. Bush between 2001 and 2009. He played a central role in formulating the American strategy following the September 11 attacks, and he was one of the most prominent architects of what was known as the “War on Terror” and the invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq.

The war on terrorism

After the September 11 attacks, the US war on Afghanistan began to overthrow the Taliban, which was harboring Al-Qaeda.
Cheney then called for expanding the scope of the American attack to include Iraq, as his warnings about weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq, and his links to Al-Qaeda, played a major role in paving the way for the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

His name has been associated with strict security policies and the expansion of the powers of the executive branch, in addition to the use of controversial interrogation methods in the fight against terrorism.

Criticism of Trump
Cheney fiercely criticized US President Donald Trump, and said of him, “In the 246-year history of our nation, there has been no individual who poses a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He is a coward. A real man does not lie to his supporters. He lost the election, and he lost horribly. I know that, and he knows that, and deep down, I think most Republicans know that.”

Cheney has continued to criticize Trump in recent years, and supported Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. He said he would vote for her out of a “duty to put the interests of the country first over partisanship to defend our Constitution.”

With Cheney’s departure, the page of a political legacy that changed the face of the Middle East and the world is turning.