Iraqis in Baghdad have remembered former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney as "bloodthirsty" after the Republican's death aged 84.

"Dick Cheney had a major role in the occupation and destruction of Iraq under the pretext of nuclear weapons, which never existed. They destroyed us, and Dick Cheney specifically destroyed us," said Baghdad resident Ahmad Jabar.

"He was bloodthirsty. All I can say is that he was a bloodthirsty man."

Cheney, who became one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said Tuesday in a statement.

The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defense chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush before returning to public life as vice president under Bush’s son George W. Bush.

Cheney was proved wrong on point after point in the Iraq War, without losing the conviction he was essentially right.

He alleged links between the 9/11 attacks and prewar Iraq that didn’t exist.

He said U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators; they weren’t.

He declared the Iraqi insurgency in its last throes in May 2005, back when 1,661 U.S. service members had been killed, not even half the toll by war’s end.

For admirers, he kept the faith in a shaky time, resolute even as the nation turned against the war and the leaders waging it.

AP video by Ali Jabar