ick Cheney was absolutely certain we were all going to die. Everybody. The terrorists were out there and ready to smother sleeping American babies, drown puppies in swimming pools, and burn every slice of apple pie in sight. America was going to die. Unless… unless we took it to the terrorists, made sure they got the message not to fuck with Liberty and Justice. And how did Dick Cheney think all this would happen? Well, we’d get Congress to grant the President unlimited war powers, invade Muslim countries across the Middle East, and torture the shit out of anyone unlucky enough to get captured.

After September 11, 2001, the world changed for Vice President Cheney. Terror plots seemed to spring from all directions—raw intelligence screamed out, ‘SECOND WAVE OF ATTACKS IMMINENT, WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!’ The National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department and the Office of the Vice President all drew up extensive doomsday scenarios in case terrorists launched chemical, biological or nuclear attacks.

When this was complete, Dick Cheney plotted in the dark expanses of his various “undisclosed locations.” As described in Jane Meyer’s thorough account of post 9/11 paranoia, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, national security became the paramount issue inside the Bush White House, trumping human rights and international law.

“Fear and anxiety were exploited by zealots and fools,” said one former administration official, alluding to the abuses undertaken by the Bush administration to curb civil rights. By Mayer’s account, the White House undertook a comprehensive approach to screwing people out of their rights. “Whatever it takes” was a common slogan inside the White House Situation Room, where the President received the latest updates on terror operations at home and abroad.

President Bush said “whatever it takes,” and let loose the dogs of war. In the aftermath of the largest terrorist attack in American history, “the gloves came off,” said an intelligence official, referring to America’s new anti-terror approach. After 9/11, our government was more than willing to find Arabs, any Arab really, and make them pay for what the extremists in their culture had done.

And thus, the path was set for extraordinary rendition, prisoner abuse, outright torture and deliberate assassination of terror suspects, all under the auspices of protecting our country, our citizens and our interests at home and abroad.

Granted, the fear so pervasive within the citizenry of the United States was driving all of us towards a feverish dread of an impending attack. Remember terrorist poison pens? Those false alarms about biological attacks at Wal-Mart? Those concerned citizens of Harrison, Mississippi who were SURE the terrorists were specifically concerned with destroying their shitty little society? We were all pissing ourselves, that was for sure.

The problem is, even if a majority of the populace thirsted for blood and begged our government to eliminate every Arab at any cost, it may have been a good idea for the President and the entire government not to listen to us. It’s the responsibility of the government to, well, be responsible; to think logically when the populace has become a mad rabble. But President Bush and Vice President Cheney were more than willing to work “in the shadows” as Cheney suggested a few days after the attacks.

Unfortunately for all of us, that’s exactly what they did.