Cheney Should Have Died Alone in a Cage

By Caitlin Johnstone – Nov 5, 2025

Dick Cheney died far too old and far too free. The fact that such monsters get to pass away in their eighties surrounded by loved ones instead of alone in a cage is an indictment of our entire civilization.

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Dick Cheney, arguably the single government official most responsible for the expansion of US warmongering and militarism in the 21st century, has died.

The worst worst war sluts of the US empire have issued statements expressing their condolences, including Democrats like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi. Because if there’s one thing that can bring Democrats and Republicans together, it’s war crimes and the slaughter of millions of middle easterners.

In a truly sane society, Richard Bruce Cheney would have lived a life of relative obscurity, working as a gardener or something without ever getting anywhere close to power. In a fairly sane society, people would have realized what a monster Cheney was before he could do any major harm in Washington, and he would have been driven out of any town he tried to enter. In a slightly sane society, he would have been punished for the rape of Iraq and lived out the rest of his life in a cell in The Hague.

But we do not live in a truly sane society, or in a fairly sane society, or even in a slightly sane society. We live in the sort of society that lets a man unleash a chain of events which kills millions and displaces tens of millions causing more human suffering than the mind can possibly comprehend, and then live out the rest of his life in comfort and privilege, with zero consequences of any kind.

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Dick Cheney is dead now, but his legacy lives on. The damage he did is still unfolding. The hegemonic, hypermilitaristic ideology he promoted has become the baseline norm. New swamp monsters have stepped in to fill his shoes and advance the same murderous and tyrannical agendas he advanced, confident that they too will suffer no consequences and live long and comfortable lives in reward for their loyal service to the US empire.

Dick Cheney left a stain upon our species that we will spend the rest of our lives trying to scrub out. All decent people want our world to move in the exact opposite direction he spent his entire blood-spattered career working to steer us toward. All decent people want to undo everything that Dick Cheney was.

That said, the world actually does feel better without Dick Cheney in it. Feels a bit brighter. A bit lighter. Kinder. Gentler.

I don’t find comfort in the idea that Cheney is burning in hell now, because I do not believe in hell. I don’t find comfort in the idea that the empire will become less murderous and abusive in Cheney’s absence, because it won’t.

I find comfort in the fact that, after all these years, I am finally walking around on a planet that I do not have to share with Dick Cheney.

It’s a nice experience. Give it a try. Take a few steps and notice how you are at long last walking around on an earth that doesn’t have Dick Cheney on it. Look up at the sky and reflect on the fact that you and Dick Cheney are not living underneath that sky together anymore. Breathe deeply and think, “Today is the first day of life without Dick Cheney.”

It’s pretty sweet. I find that something in me relaxes a bit. Something subtle in my animal body is very relieved that he is gone now.

That’s good enough for me. I’ll take it.

(caitlinjohnstone.com)