The Real War

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570699,00.html

What led to so many post-9/11 fumbles? A group of intrepid authors gives us answers
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Posted Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006
Thomas Ricks is telling his colleagues about the skepticism he encountered when writing his Iraq war book, Fiasco. "When I first started working on it," he says, "a lot of people said, ?Why are you calling it that?'" His Washington Post colleague Bob Woodward silently raises his hand and points to himself as one of the doubters. "By the time my book came out," Ricks continues, "nobody said that to me." In 2006 an acclaimed series of books emerged to tell the real story of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism. TIME gathered the authors of five, all best sellers, for a roundtable conversation: Ricks, Woodward (State of Denial), Michael Gordon and Lieut. General Bernard Trainor (Cobra II), Ron Suskind (The One Percent Doctrine) and Lawrence Wright (The Looming Tower). "I was amazed how they all meshed" as a body of work, says Ricks. "I'd love to sit down as a historian and edit all of them into one book." In that spirit, TIME'S Steve Koepp and Mark Thompson debriefed the authors.

Excerpts::

TIME: In hindsight, why did we go to war in Iraq? What do you think the real reasons were?

TRAINOR: After 9/11 the country was in shock, including the President. And he looks at this country — wide-open borders and a free style of life, how do you protect against another catastrophic attack? I think the idea came about that you try to get the archer before he fires the arrow. Better yet, you get the guy who supplies the archer. O.K., that being the case, whom can you operate against? Well, it's not very likely you can do much about North Korea or Iran. But Iraq is an easy target, and if you go against Iraq, you're not only eliminating that guy, but you're also sending a signal to all the troublemakers of the world that you don't mess with Hopalong Cassidy.

TIME: What about the sense of unfinished business on the part of the Bush family?

SUSKIND: From the first National Security Council meeting in 2001, in January, there was ardor. Now some people say it wasn't a war plan. But what's indisputable is that there was discussion about the primary mission of U.S. policy would be to oust Saddam Hussein. It became the stuff of action plans from the very start. In terms of Rumsfeld and Cheney, there's a sense of regret that it wasn't done before. The mission was Iraq from the beginning.

RICKS: I totally disagree with you. I don't think that there was a Bush Administration plan to invade Iraq at the time they came into office. For the first year, they were more or less focused on improving containment: How do we sharpen policy against Iraq? It wasn't until 9/11 that you get that really sharp break where they say, O.K., let's invade this place.

WRIGHT: They saw this as a political opportunity that would never come around again. If they wanted to put that plan into action, this was the moment. There wasn't going to be another one.

[babylonsister]

1. Ricks is puzzling.

RICKS: I totally disagree with you. I don't think that there was a Bush Administration plan to invade Iraq at the time they came into office. For the first year, they were more or less focused on improving containment: How do we sharpen policy against Iraq?

What about PNAC? Why were the daily briefings ignored prior to 9/11?

[cap]

2. Woodward: sometimes despair is private...

eom

[pretzel4gore]

3. so a buncha unemployed waiters with boxcutters...

the assumption is that 911 was for real-nevermind that it was known about and expected as far as we're told! nevermind that bush wasn't really elected in 2k, and that hung like a damocles sword overtop their empty heads! nevermind all the doubts and lies and hogwash passed off as godd drinking water. nevermind all that! just pretend you're IN THE KNOW and it's bush's sincerity or innocence or naivete that led him astray! just fukking pretend. after all, how many divisions have the people got?