The Documentary film, The World according to Dick Cheney premieres on Showtime on Friday.  If you reside on either of the political poles you'll probably find it sorely wanting.  It neither demonizes the man nor honors him...and generally digs no deeper than a Wikipedia bio entry with little of the kind of revelatory insight one hopes to encounter in seeing and hearing the principal players responding to direct inquiry.  I know a bit about the obstacles the film maker faced, but all the more reason some effort might have been made to let the viewer know what they were in order to better understand how and why key figures, factors and events are absent and unaccounted for.  But Cheney speaks for himself and in those words he reveals more than a few clues to the darker truths that lie beneath the surface.  It's no Fog of War, but then again, not much is, and during the lingering frustration I felt after watching it, I felt the urge to wax political/poetical.

Cheney Agonistes

What happened to men like these

driven to achieve

yet ashamed to feel

to rise above 

and beyond the reach of conscience

What happened to men like these--

who sought a bitter form of solace

in self satisfied certainty.
A contagion of cowardice
infects the innocent as well as the arrogant

What happened to men like these

who live behind walls

insulated

barricaded from doubt

and deaf to the sound of distant voices 

questioning

their unquestioning will.

And

what happened to men 

like we--

who failed to deter them?