Photo/Illutration Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, left, and GOP presidential candidate, George W. Bush, appear together before the Republican National Convention on July 26, 2000. (REUTERS)

There is no “if” in history, but a series of coincidences can change its course in unexpected ways.

News of the death of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has brought me a rush of complex emotions. While I feel a strange sense of understanding of the world as it is today, I also cannot help wondering if what occurred at the start of the 21st century could have been avoided.

It was a decade after the end of the Cold War, and the world was seeking a new order centered around the United States as the sole superpower.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States rushed into its “war on terror.” And one of the standard bearers was Cheney.

Was it a coincidence that the U.S. president at the time, George W. Bush, happened to be politically inexperienced? Patently disoriented amid the crisis, he turned to his trusty, seasoned neocon advisers.

Among them, Cheney’s authority was supreme. In “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” American author Barton Gellman describes Cheney as a “presence similar to America’s first ‘shadow president.’”   

Despite the absence of evidence, Cheney declared that Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction was beyond doubt and steered the United States toward the Iraq War.      

Ultimately, it was proven that WMD did not exist. But about 200,000 civilians were said to have been killed in that war and related acts of terrorism.

As an extension of this mistake, I think I see the present reality of false information being spread to divide people into friends and foe.

New York City elected a 34-year-old mayor who personifies diversity on Nov. 4.  Is this an outcome of social division, or does it spell hope?

History cannot be overwritten, but it is possible to learn from the past.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 6

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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