Twenty Years of Dick's Tricks Got Us Here (No, Not That Dick, the Other One)

[Demeter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-rossi/twenty-years-of-dicks-tri_b_163856.html


Enemy-Maker, Arms Dealer, User of Controversial Weapons Cheney had a curious knack for finding foes when his defense budgets were under the gun... veteran powermonger Dick Cheney and his snaking half-smile slithered out of high-ranking federal office once again, his latest exit accompanied by a flurry of nearly identical articles about the "Cheney Legacy" -- the most foul-smelling of any American official ever...While pundits duly listed his most recent sleazy moves - the bogus campaign for invading Iraq, the Cheney-approved torture techniques, the secret CIA kidnappings of suspects, the establishment of Guantanamo, the contracts to Halliburton et al and wiretapping of U.S. citizens -- these essays about the stains and slime left behind by America's least favorite Dick (even Nixon was more popular at his nadir) neglected to examine the most shocking part of Dick's rise: how Cheney created America's worst enemies -- decades ago - only to slay them as vice president. And the columnists and analysts also forgot to mention how the US defense budget appears to have had everything to do with Cheney's enemy-making machine.

Few even recalled Cheney's first and longest-lasting contribution to the current state of US-Middle Eastern relations - his 1989-1992 stint as Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush. It marked a turning point: Cheney charged the U.S. into the Middle East for the first time as a bona fide fighting force, security provider to assorted oil-rich kingdoms, big time arms dealer to nearly all Arab countries, and was often seen as an occupying force in the Persian Gulf, where the U.S. began building and leasing a string of dozens of military bases, many of which it continues to use. It was then, two decades ago, that Cheney's actions made foes of the two foreigners who would most emblemize the threats to the George W. Bush administration -- namely, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And they've come in real handy for Cheney, being wheeled out as reasons to boost the American military budget to its highest ever.

And the reason, one might argue, that then-defense secretary Cheney was so keen to get us into the Middle East was the $300 billion defense budget that he was peddling in 1990 - a budget that kept getting shot down in Congress. The problem: the war chest request Cheney devised (with underling Paul Wolfowitz) - a budget that revamped the military and shot multi-billions of dollars into the "Star Wars" missile defense system, newfangled Patriot missile systems and Stealth bombers -- had been designed when we had an enemy, specifically the "Evil Empire" of the Soviet Union. By 1990, the "evil empire" was falling apart and the Cold War was tepid. There was no reason for such pricy, high-tech war toys, with no horned serpent in sight. But then, in the nick of time, Cheney found one, creating another in the process.

After months of hearing from congressional heavyweights that his budget would shrivel for lack of a threatening monster, Cheney received his worst news yet on August 1, 1990. The New York Times ran a story detailing the latest whack: "In a blow to the Bush Administration, the House Armed Services Committee voted today to end production of the Stealth bomber and cut nearly $2 billion from the Pentagon's proposal for the ''Star Wars'' anti-missile program." It was the panel's first vote ever to eliminate a major weapons system....The Pentagon has hailed the bomber, the B-2, as an essential part of its strategic arsenal. Opponents of the $63 billion program argue that the Stealth, named for its ability to evade radar, is not only too expensive but also unnecessary in a time of easing global tensions....the House panel approved a military budget that would shave $24 billion from the Administration's proposal of $307 billion for the fiscal year <1991> beginning Oct. 1.... reflect Congress's determination to slash Pentagon spending more than at any time in well over a decade."...Merely one day, later, however, that derailed budget was heading back on track - and in fact Cheney's "white" (trace-able) budget would be over $320 billion for that fiscal year - with missile defense and the snazzy new anti-missile system and stealth planes well-funded, of course. The reason: on August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein sent his troops rolling into Kuwait, a country that he owed billions to, accused of slant drilling into Iraqi oil fields while creating a glut and making OPEC oil cheaper, all the more painful to broke Iraq....

AND THE BEAT GOES ON, SEE LINK