Two Years Before 9/11 - Bush wanted Iraq

[RBHam]

Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer
by Russ Baker

HOUSTON -- Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."

That President Bush and his advisers had Iraq on their minds long before weapons inspectors had finished their work - and long before alleged Iraqi ties with terrorists became a central rationale for war - has been raised elsewhere, including in a book based on recollections of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. However, Herskowitz was in a unique position to hear Bush's unguarded and unfiltered views on Iraq, war and other matters - well before he became president.

more...
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm

[Turbineguy]

1. Finally!

Some corroboration. I have been saying for years that I heard candidate Bush say he was going to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

[knowbody0]

2. this brings to mind

that "friend" who recorded his phone calls.

[cthrumatrix]

3. Paul O'Neil's book shared the information VERY CLEARLY

8.5 months before 911...SHrubs first cabinet meeting was how to to over throw Iraq.

Go buy the book...and tell me I'm wrong.

[EVDebs]

9. But but but Bob Woodward says it was talked about in Nov 2001

....why would (lt. j.g. naval intelligence) Robert U. Woodward say such a thing ? And the timing of his book and O'Neill's is interesting too.

Woodward's bio.
www.webcom.com/ctka/pr196-woodward.html

also curious is Ben Bradlee's intelligence background while he was in France. 'Nuther story.

[proud patriot]

4. The first thing out of my husband's mouth on Dec 12th 2000

after the Supreme Court handed bush the presidency was

"well we are going to war with Iraq"

He keeps reminding me of it

[WLKjr]

5. I was yelling this the whole time florida was happening

I said that he was going to take care of sadamm to fix daddy's mess. of course this was before I started du'ing , like WAY before I started blogging and forum posting.

[DrDebug]

6. Of course he wanted to be a war president

I am now official a war president. Mission accomplished!

[Richard D]

7. I certainly hope . . .

. . . that Mickey Herskowitz doesn't get depressed suddenly and decide to kill himself, and that he stays out of small planes and doesn't drive on lonely country roads.

[dubyaD40web]

8. I'm not surprised.

Anyone else?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. The Pentagon PNACers strongly advised Clinton to attack Iraq in 1997....

...and you have to believe that Herr Busch, because Jebbie was a PNAC writer, was also involved in this effort.

That's four years before 911.