There has been some talk
recently about the run up to war and when the decision was made. I've been reading
Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward and there is some fascinating information there -- most of it we already assumed, but it is nonetheless disturbing to see in print. He effectively presents a timeline to war that begins
before Bush is even inaugurated and has reached a near certainty by the spring of 2002.
I thought it might be interesting to look at some passages in the book from a time period closer to the actual invasion (Feb/Mar 2003) -- they're below the fold.
From page 324:
"I'm worried about the adequacy of the oil market," the president [Bush] stated, expressing concern ffor the world market's ability to absorb temporary shortfalls during a war in the Middle East.
[...]
According to Prince Bandar [of Saudi Arabia], the Saudis hoped to fine-tune oil prices over 10 months to prime the economy for 2004. What was key, Bandar knew, were the economic conditions before a presidential election, not at the moment of the election.
Niiiiice.....just another example of Chimpy McCokespoon being in bed with the Saudi royal family. Conservatives don't like SCOTUS justices to quote international law in their opinions, but foreign influence on our presidential elections is just fine.
Let's try another one -- Douglas Feith gave a presentation to the president and NSC on March 4th, 2003 to talk about postwar planning. Woodward describes the PowerPoint presentation that Feith gives, including such gems as "Obtain the support of the Iraqi people" and then describes Bush's reaction (from page 329):
Feith displayed organizational charts. It was a lot of abstract political science, and the president didn't have much to say other than to remark that he wanted to see information on how they would deal with the military and intelligence services.
Excellent. They start post-war planning a few days before the invasion, and Idiot Boy isn't interested.
Now, let's see why Bush really invaded Iraq -- because he was afraid that his conservative base would see him as a wimp if he didn't (page 334):
Though Bush maintained that he did not read the editorial pagesof newspapers, he became aware of the rising storm. [Bush said:] "I began to be concerned at the blowback coming out of America: 'Bush won't act. The leader we thought was strong and straightforward and clearheaded has now got himself in a position where he can't act.' And it wasn't on the left. It was on the right."
Oh, OK, now I get it. Tens of thousands of people are dead because you were afraid that Bob Novak would call you a wuss if you didn't bomb Iraq. The president was bullied into war by the "101st Fighting Keboardists". Yes, folks, this is our president. Idiot.
I highly recommend the entire book, by the way.