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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Gap Years
The author says, what if Dick Cheney's dreams for global domination propelled us into the terrifying world of Stephen R. Donaldson's The Gap Cycle?
In the gap years between the Bush administrations, Cheney had served as Chairman and Chief Executive of UMC's predecessor organisation, Halliburton Company, already a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector. Of course, as a former Secretary of Defence, and member of both the American Enterprise Institute and Council on Foreign Relations, Cheney had a business rolodex that was second to none. Officially headquartered in Houston, Texas, Cheney would spend the majority of those five years networking his contacts to engage in highly profitable business development activities with Middle Eastern governments. To
Throughout the Bush43 Presidency, and due to the inconveniently resource intensive nature of these plans for global domination, the business of warfare was largely outsourced to private security contractors (pictured) such as Blackwater International, Global Risks, Vinnell Corp. More than 15,000 employees of private military contractors, from giant Halliburton to tiny commando firms worked, fought and died alongside U.S. Soldiers in Iraq. There were more private military contractors on the ground in Iraq than troops from any one ally, including Britain. One single company, Global Risks, reported 1,100 employees in Iraq, including 500 Nepalese Gurkha troops and 500 Fijian soldiers, ranking it sixth among troop donors. Due to the American success in the Second Gulf War, Halliburton's contracts in Iraq generated more than $13 billion in revenue by the time they started to expire in 2006. Thereafter a merger with other energy giants led to the formation of the United Mining Companies, and the consolidation of private security contractors into a quasi-autonomous security division, the United Mining Companies Police (UMCP). As expected, Mr Erik D. Prince, the founder and sole owner of the private military company Blackwater Worldwide was named the first Director of the UMCP. The two organisations would pursue global domination for some five centuries until finally Captain Sixteen Vertigus presented a bill of severance to the Governing Council of Earth and Space (© Stephen R. Donaldson, 1991-1996).
Author's Notes Original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Stephen Donaldson, The Gap Cycle 1991-1996. We saw so many paralells between the Gap Series and the Blackwater / Halliburton controversies that we decided to amplify reality to meet the fantasy of Stephen R. Donaldson's excellent books. We exploited a weak pun in Gap years, obviously - please pardon it.
Steve Payne Editor of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today. Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.
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In
2008 outgoing US Vice President Richard B. Cheney was appointed the next Chief
Executive Officer of the United Mining Companies (
promote American global leadership.
Cheney founded a neo-conservative U.S. think tank (the Project for the New
American Century) with Donald Rumsfeld, William Kristol and others in 1997. Just
three years later, he chaired a selection committee for Vice President, wisely
determining that Dick Cheney was the most suitable candidate. To remove any
conflict of interest, he resigned his post at Halliburton. At this stage, his
net worth was estimated to be between $30 million and $100 million, largely
derived from his post at Halliburton, as well as a gross income of nearly $8.82
million.