The prevailing image of Dick Cheney is the Darth Cheney version, that he's a sociopathic wannabe brutal fascist dictator. That's true, but there's another side to Deadeye Dick: the gullible fool. The fascinating, entertaining and critically important untold story of how Dick Cheney used his power over Bush (and the CIA, State Dept., DOD, etc.) is how Ahmed Chalabi became Dick Cheney's good buddy, and how Chalabi systematically convinced and seduced intelligence agencies all over Europe, (and Cheney) through his Iraqi National Congress, and other proxies (like Curveball) and like-minded Iraqi exiles, to fan the flames of war.
The war could only have been started by Cheney's relentless determination and his disregard or contempt for all other branches of government, the CIA, the State Dept. or the American people, but Chalabi supplied the essential phoney intelligence Cheney needed, and apparently believed, to feed to the media and congress to make it happen.
The full story would reveal Chalabi's Shiite background, his extensive ties to Iranian intelligence agencies and his family ties to Iran.
Also, how Iran needed to destroy their mortal enemy, Saddam Hussein, and take power in Iraq, and how immediately after US troops marched into Bahgdad Iranian-trained teams took power throughout southern Iraq, and how Iranian currency and language are used today in much of Iraq, and how Iran and Iraq signed military cooperation agreements over a year ago, and how Iran is sponsoring a shadow government ready to take power in Iraq, as reported on CNN.
Cheney's bio also includes the degredation of American military power, economic strength, diplomatic credibility, national security and sense of community a result of our invasion of Iraq.
By connecting the dots, you would almost think Chalabi was working to further the interests of Iran the whole time, and Cheney was a gullible fool. That would make for some fascinating TV. It would probably end the war almost immediately, and get Cheney impeached within days.
It would have been a lot harder to sell the war without the organized sales campaign orchestrated by Chalabi for well over a decade. In 1991 Cheney warned against invading Bahgdad precisely because he predicted the results that we see now in Iraq. It took more than his lust for black gold and fabulous riches to convince him, against his better judgement, that controlling Iraq could be accomplished on the cheap and the riches could be his.
We may never know how Chalabi may have charmed and seduced Cheney, but no doubt Chalabi knew exactly what the neocons were dreaming and how to promise them what they desired, and he certainly knew how to appeal to a megalomaniac like Cheney by shuddering in awe of his power and playing submissive, loyal, etc. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was first sponsored by the CIA, but that's not where it began or ended. Chalabi and his clandestine conspiracy made themselves available to the CIA in the early 1990's, and the CIA caught on to them by 1995 and dropped their support of them, but Cheney had no respect for the CIA. Chalabi knew that and how to play him.
Chalabi masterfully sent "informants" to various European intelligence agencies, all with different versions of the same bogus stories, resulting in these agencies corraborating each other's reports without revealing their sources. Of course Cheney had to know a lot of it was phoney, but when it comes from so many angles and is so mutually reinforcing it takes on the veneer of truth, to the point that people as diverse as Oprah, PBS's Frontline, Dan Rather and Colin Powell believed it. Congress never would have passed the war resolution without Chalabi's systematically planted misinformation, and Cheney probably would not have gotten his war without Chalabi to backup his stories. Cheney might have staged provocations like the Nazis did, (or like the Tonkin Gulf incident to start the Vietnam war), but that's riskier than having a host of "well-informed" exiles to rely on.
Cheney and the other neocons may not have quite believed they could pull it off, for the reasons Cheney gave in 1991, without Chalabi's ever so persuasive ways of convincing them US troops would be greeted as liberators, a compliant puppet government would be set up, permanent US bases and occupation would be easy, and no-bid oil contracts for Cheney and his buddies would be guaranteed. The permanent Republican majority and the fascist executive would certainly have followed, plus ever more wars. Chalabi was such a skilled dream-weaver.
Now we see that instead, Iran is the clear winner of our invasion and has gained the power and stature they have wanted desperately for a millenium, and the war is currently accelerating the fall of the American empire (another major milestone). One might conclude that Chalabi pulled off a hoax of epic proportions. Plus, he got a seat 3 feet behind Laura Bush at the infamous 2003 State of the Union address. Ya gotta admire his chutzpah.
This story is needed to bring down Cheney's image of gravitas and expose him as a self-absorbed idiot, which would make it much easier to impeach him. Everything Cheney and the neocons have done, sacrificed and blown away has benefited Iran. Period. We'll get no oil, no bases, no foothold in the mideast. Nothing. And that's entirely according to the plan that Chalabi accomplished by persuading Cheney and the neocons to ignore their better judgement back in 1991 and storm the Iraqi fortress, in total ignorance of the realities on the ground there.
Many people like having a big strong bully in charge, but not a complete idiot. It makes impeachment vastly easier. One needs only see through the fog of phoney gravitas.