WASHINGTON – A funeral service for former Vice President Dick Cheney was held Monday in Washington D.C., marked by tears and solemn tributes from political figures including former President George W. Bush and Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney. The event largely avoided direct acknowledgement of the controversies surrounding Cheney’s role in initiating the Iraq War and implementing post-9/11 security policies.
Bush eulogized Cheney as “solid and rare and reliable,” praising his “talent and his restraint” and describing him as “smart and polished, without airs.” He stated Cheney was ”totally devoted to protecting the United States and its interests,” asserting there was “never any agenda or angle beyond that.”
Liz Cheney, recently ousted from the congressional Republican party for her opposition to Donald Trump, subtly referenced her father’s later criticism of the party’s populist direction, noting he had called Trump a “threat to our republic” and even endorsed Kamala Harris in the last presidential election. She invoked John F. kennedy,stating her father believed “bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans,” and that defending the constitution superseded party loyalty.
Observers noted a paradox in Cheney’s legacy: defending democracy domestically while overseeing policies that impacted democratic aspirations abroad. Jeremy Varon, author of Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War: The Movement to Stop the War on Terror, suggested this stemmed from a “us versus them” logic, were ensuring American security justified actions impacting the self-determination of other nations.
Liz Cheney concluded her eulogy with a paraphrase of Shakespeare, saying, “Goodnight sweet dad, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
