WP: Behind Statecraft, Bush Set Iraq War in Motion (Good Read)

[kskiska]

Saturday, April 17, 2004; Page A01

Beginning in late December 2001, President Bush met repeatedly with Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his war cabinet to plan the U.S. attack on Iraq even as he and administration spokesmen insisted they were pursuing a diplomatic solution, according to a new book on the origins of the war.

(snip)

Adding to the momentum, Woodward writes, was the pressure from advocates of war inside the administration. Vice President Cheney, whom Woodward describes as a "powerful, steamrolling force" led that group and had developed what some of his colleagues felt was a "fever" about removing Hussein by force.

(snip)

Woodward describes a relationship between Cheney and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that became so strained Cheney and Powell are barely on speaking terms. Cheney engaged in a bitter and eventually winning struggle over Iraq with Powell, an opponent of war who believed Cheney was obsessively trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network and treated ambiguous intelligence as fact.

Powell felt Cheney and his allies -- his chief aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and what Powell called Feith's "Gestapo" office -- had established what amounted to a separate government. The vice president, for his part, believed Powell was mainly concerned with his own popularity and told friends at a dinner he hosted a year ago celebrating the outcome of the war that Powell was a problem and "always had major reservations about what we were trying to do."

Before the war with Iraq, Powell bluntly told Bush that if he sent U.S. troops there "you're going to be owning this place." Powell and his deputy and closest friend, Richard L. Armitage, used to refer to what they called "the Pottery Barn rule" on Iraq: "You break it, you own it," according to Woodward.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17347-2004Apr16.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. I can buy some of this

but what really drove Powell to change his mind about leaving and to jump on the war band wagon? There's got to be much more to this.

[BadGimp]

3. there has to indeed

excellent point Angel

get to the heart of why colin dropped traw, and you get deep in sight into the Rove Chenney machine.


my first wap post :)

[bushwakker]

11. where did you get that photo?

and when and where was it taken?

[hedda_foil]

2. Woodward has been chosen to perform the modified limited hangout.

Enough to get Bush out of office. Not enough to damage the Republicans or the family. He has done this job before.

[Eye and Monkey]

4. "In 31/2 hours of interviews with Woodward...Bush said" - but 9-11 Commish

Can only get an hour.

Does that seem right?

From the cited article:

"In 31/2 hours of interviews with Woodward, an assistant managing editor at The Washington Post, Bush said the secret planning was necessary to avoid 'enormous international angst and domestic speculation'..."

And, of course, the tail end of that paragraph is even more troubling - I believe that the BASIS of the political process in the US is supposed to be domestic speculation.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Check out this scarey line - spawn won't even listen to his father

Bush said he did not remember asking the question of his father, former president George H.W. Bush, who fought Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But, he added that the two had discussed developments in Iraq.

"You know he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to," Bush said.

God save us from those who go to war in your name.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Oh, dear God, so to speak --

It's so hard to think of Bush as a truly religious person, given my idea of true religion, and seeing him unscripted at press conferences, treating reporters with total contempt. I don't see an ounce of "Christian charity" in the man. Maybe his brand of Old Testament fundamentalism dictates a hard, harsh view of the world, which he personifies with his contemptuous attitude toward others, his harsh policies, and his waging of a needless war. He shows contempt even for his father here. It would hurt me to hear this from one of my children -- that their faith prevented them from "appealing" to me as their parent for strength.

[Ernesto]

17. This is why John Ashcroft fits

in so well with this pResident.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. All This Book Proves Is That The Chimp Doesn't Know How To Cover

It's own ass.

without the constitutional conflicts that is apparent, Bush is clearly using Booby Woodward to try to foist the whole intelligence blame on the CIA and George Tenet? What about the OSP? The stovepiping? The fact that the neocons considered the CIA and te convetional intelligence community irrelevant because it won't endorse the conspiracy theory that Saddam Hussein definitely has weapons and will destroy us all.

Other than the fact that the book doesn't seem to place Bush in a continuously flattering light, Woodward is again playing the part of the parrot.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Here's how the $700 million --

taken secretly from funds for Afghanistan, without Congressional knowledge or approval, and, according to Woodward, unconstitutional --was spent. What company or companies did it go to?

"In the summer of 2002, Bush approved $700 million worth of 'preparatory tasks' in the Persian Gulf region such as upgrading airfields, bases, fuel pipelines and munitions storage depots to accommodate a massive U.S. troop deployment. The Bush administration funded the projects from a supplemental appropriations bill for the war in Afghanistan and old appropriations, keeping Congress unaware of the reprogramming of money and the eventual cost."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17347-2004Apr16_3.html

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Powell warns if we go to war, we'll "own" Iraq (Cheney's goal?)

"Before the war with Iraq, Powell bluntly told Bush that if he sent U.S. troops there 'you're going to be owning this place.' Powell and his deputy and closest friend, Richard L. Armitage, used to refer to what they called 'the Pottery Barn rule' on Iraq: 'You break it, you own it,' according to Woodward."

Well, maybe that was why Cheney was in such a "fever" to go to war -- to "own" Iraq!

[librechik]

10. ",,,what Powell called Feith's "Gestapo" office...

had established what amounted to a separate government."


OMG

more shock & awe

[The Stranger]

12. They must have been the "Empire Builders."

http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/index.html

[librechik]

14. terriffic link, Stranger. Thx n't

[Snellius]

13. Photo of Evil Crusaders on Eve of Battle:

[robbedvoter]

15. Older , comprehensive WaPo article on Iraq decision

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43909-2003Jan11?language=pri...
>
> U.S. Decision On Iraq Has Puzzling Past
> Opponents of War Wonder When, How Policy Was Set


It has PNAC, the entire history, no Tenet and no "reluctant Bush"

[robbedvoter]

16. Hey, Woody, how about this?

*Bush Started Iraq Invasion Planning at First NSC Meeting*


Bush campaigned on a "humble" foreign policy. But at his very first
National Security Council meeting, he ordered the Pentagon to begin
planning an invasion of Iraq, according to Mark Matthews of the
Baltimore Sun. The younger Bush entered office "determined to do
something about the Saddam problem," a White House official agrees.
"Those around the table, including the president , were clearly
regime-change supporters," said another official at the meeting, who
declined to be identified. "
http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.decision16mar16,0,29195...

[robbedvoter]

18. Wingnuts disagree with blaming CIA (World net daily)

__US Intelligence Told Bush Iraq Was Not Tied to Any US Terrorist
Attacks

Last fall, while Resident Bush was citing the 9/11 terrorist attacks as
cause to invade Iraq, "US intelligence services unanimously
agreed...that 'no specific intelligence information' tied Iraq to US
terrorist attacks, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Their
findings were presented to the pResident Oct. 2 in a still-secret report
on Iraq. The summary....of the 90-page National Intelligence Estimate
was declassified Friday. WorldNetDaily obtained a copy from
the National Security Council. (The report is different from the
unclassified 25-page white paper the CIA made public on its website last
October.) Page 4 of the report states: '...e have no specific
intelligence information that Saddam's regime has directed attacks
against US territory'. WND notes that this "would appear to undercut a
popular theory among Iraq hawks Wolfowitz] that Baghdad conspired with al-Qaida to try to blow up the
Twin Towers."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33705

[robbedvoter]

19. More "Tenet made poor W go to war"

CIA warned administration of postwar guerrilla peril


http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/222/nation/CIA_warned_administration_of_postwa\
r_guerrilla_peril+.shtml

THE INTELLIGENCE

CIA warned administration of postwar guerrilla peril

Officials defend rebuilding plan

By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 8/10/2003

ASHINGTON - In February, the CIA gave a formal briefing to the National
Security Council, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Vice
President Dick Cheney, and President Bush himself: ''A quick military
victory in Iraq will likely be followed by armed resistance from
remnants of the Ba'ath Party and Fedayeen Saddam irregulars.''


The administration seemed unmoved. In the weeks leading up to the Iraq
war, top Bush administration officials made glowing predictions that
Iraqis would welcome US troops with open arms, while behind the scenes
they did little to prepare for a guerrilla war.

''My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators,'' Cheney said
on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' on March 16. ''I've talked with a lot of
Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House.''

''I imagine they will be welcomed,'' Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D.
Wolfowitz, a key architect of the White House's Iraq strategy, said in
an interview April 3, two weeks into the war, with CBS's ''60 Minutes
II.''