Dick Cheney, Former US Vice President Who Drives Iraq War Dies At The Age Of 84

JAKARTA - Dick Cheney, the former vice president (wapres) of Iraq's war, died at the age of 84.

The man who became one of the most important figures behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 is considered by presidential historians as one of the most influential vice presidents in US history.

Cheney's family said in a statement on Tuesday, November 4, that the deceased died from pneumonia complications and heart disease and blood vessels.

The Republican sympathizers as well as former members of the Wyoming congress and defense minister, had become important figures in Washington when the then Governor of Texas was held by George W. Bush.

Bush, who was elected US President in the 2000 presidential election, then attracted Dick Cheney as vice president.

As vice president from 2001-2009, Cheney fought hard for the expansion of presidential power, after the situation eroded since the Watergate scandal toppled his former boss, Richard Nixon, from office.

He also expanded the influence of the vice president's office by forming a national security team that often functions as its own center of power in the government.

Cheney is a strong supporter of the US invasion of Iraq and has become one of the Bush administration's most vocal officials accusing Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction. The claims to date cannot be proven.

Cheney and Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld, who was once co-workers at the Nixon-era White House, are key figures driving the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Ahead of the war, Cheney also briefly stated the possibility of a relationship between Iraq, Al-Qaeda, and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. A commission investigating the 9/11 attacks later denied Cheney's theory.

While serving as US vice president, Cheney had clashed with some of Bush's top aides, including Foreign Minister Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Cheney is also a supporter of enhanced interrogation techniques or SERE, against suspects in alleged acts of terrorism. The technique includes confiscation of sleep to waterboarding where the victim has a sensation of approaching death.

Other parties, including the US Senate Intelligence Committee and UN special whistleblowers for counterterrorism and human rights, called these techniques "torture."

Cheney has a history of heart disease since the first attack at the age of 37. He then underwent a heart transplant in 2012.