Oil for One and One for Oil

By Brian A. Burns

In scrambling for every deal he could cut before being booted from the Vice Presidency, Dick Cheney yesterday scoffed at the idea of suspending the gas tax, calling it “a false notion”. Though many of us understand that the idea would do little in giving relief from the skyrocketed fuel prices, to say that it’s better to do nothing is only a tell-tale sign of how little he still seems to care about the welfare of the American population.

Billions of dollars from our earnings have gone into securing overseas contracts for Halliburton, which he chaired until only months before taking over the position of Vice President of the United States. Prior to that time, in 1998 when he was the acting CEO of Halliburton, he secured over 28 million dollars in business dealings with Saddam Hussein, and billions of dollars in government contracts and taxpayer-insured loans for his corporation. Once in office it took only two weeks for him to create the “Energy Task Force” - a group that met and discussed ways of securing oil contracts in countries throughout the world. It was a highly secretive operation which eventually led to a congressional investigation. From this it was uncovered that Cheney and his staff were creating documents, maps, and charts of oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals and development projects in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The lists they created were titled, “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Contracts as of March 5, 2001.” There is no doubt that much of the meddling that went into gaining support for the Iraq invasion was directed by him. But, perhaps the most treasonous act came when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Then, Dick Cheney diverted relief efforts aimed at restoring power to hospitals to repair a broken oil pipeline running through Mississippi.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Dick Cheney used the Vice Presidency for only his own welfare, all the while promoting the Afghanistan and Iraqi invasions that have cost thousands of lives, and billions of dollars and that have also helped tank our nation’s economy. Trading lives for riches, why would he care when the people are mere strangers? Americans? Who cares. When you’re as high on the corporate pyramid as he was, and involved in the business of securing natural resources, you tend to have people all over the world to befriend and exploit - American or Iraqi, it makes no difference to Dick Cheney.

For Dick, George W. Bush’s legacy, which will be the knowledge that he was the worst president in the history of our nation, will not blemish the Cheney name whatsoever. Usually, the president takes the blame while their “right-hand man” disappears in between the lines of our history books. In this case Cheney is disappearing with fat pockets clinking with our money, and a whole lot of blood on his hands.

He is a man who at a different time in our nation’s history, might’ve been swinging from the gallows, and when one considers his acts against America’s best interests, his willingness to popularize a war in which our troops are dying for his profit, he should be dropped to hang. But he always had too many Americans backing him, whose pride and anti-progressive sentiments muffled their hearing when we ranted why he and his worthless cowboy-puppet shouldn’t be elected to ruin our nation. It’s a shame that “I told you so” has no medicinal quality for the eight years of suffering through heightened stress levels and heartburn. It’s a shame that if Cheney were to hang because of his treasonous acts, he is so coated in oil that his neck would most likely slip right through the noose.