High Plains Grifter : The Life and Crimes of George W. Bush

[struggle4progress]

Thursday 23rd September 2004
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Coda: The House Rules

Even Laura couldn’t stop him. By most inside accounts, the first lady opposed the war on Iraq. She told Bob Woodward on the eve of the war that she found the prospect of the invasion horrifying. Later she whispered to others of being repulsed by the killing of Iraqi children and American soldiers. Generally, Bush cleaves to Laura like a security blanket. Since 1988, he hasn’t spent more than two consecutive nights away from her. Still, he denied her on Iraq, just as he has done on abortion, which Laura demurely supports.

His father also couldn’t deter him. Poppy Bush opposed the invasion of Iraq, reportedly fretting that Junior was wrecking the global coalition that he’d built. The old man thought that the toppling of Saddam would destabilize the Middle East and the occupation would be a bloody quagmire that would end with many Americans dead and a fundamentalist regime in control of much of Iraq. He sent his warnings through emissaries, such as his old National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Scowcroft wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing the war. The text of the piece had been floated by Bush, Sr., who gave it the thumbs up. It went to press on August 15, 2002 under the title "Don’t Attack Saddam." Plank by plank, Scowcroft ripped apart the Bush brief for war, as if it were a dilapidated barn. He said that the sanctions and UN inspections were working. Saddam was essentially contained and didn’t pose a threat to the US, Israel or other protectorates in the Middle East.

Scowcroft also blew up the notion that Saddam had cosseted Al Qaeda. "There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the September 11 attacks. Indeed, Saddam’s goals have little in common with the terrorists who threaten us, and there is little incentive for him to make common cause with them...There is virtual consensus in the world against an attack on Iraq at this time. So long as that sentiment persists, it would require the US to pursue a virtual go-it-alone strategy against Iraq, making military operations more difficult and more expensive." The occupation and reconstitution of Iraq, Scowcroft warned with vivid prescience, could be bloody, protracted and might ultimately result in a fundamentalist regime more hostile to US interests than Iraq was under Saddam.

The article was warmly received by Colin Powell and Richard Armitage at the State Department, who wanted some breathing room from their rivals in the Pentagon. Armitage in particular seemed to be looking for a way to stick it to Cheney and Rumsfeld. He advised Powell to use the Scowcroft column to tell Rumsfeld to "Fuck off." Typically, Powell, always reflexively subservient, declined to press the advantage opened by his former colleague. <snip>

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=3462
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair09222004.html

[cliss]

1. I wonder.

I recall on the Eve of the war in Iraq. Bush appeared on TV to announce "his" decision. He looked calm, way too calm for what was about to happen. His fingers were folded together as he sat before the cameras in the Oval Office. Behind him were photos of his daughters.

I looked closely at his face. It was contorted. The right side of his face, which is at odds with his brain, drooped frighteningly low. The right side of his mouth was turned down in fear. His eyebrows were pushed together, and his forehead was furrowed in deep ridges of worry.

I wonder how much this decision was "his" and not Dick's (and the others). Somehow, my hunch tells me he really didn't want to go through with this. He was coerced into it. I think he lacks the courage to do anything so bold as to wage war.

That's just my opinion, based on a careful scrutiny of his face.

[struggle4progress]

2. Maybe you're right. But when I look at him, I get a distinct impression ..

.. that the lights are on and nobody's home ...

[flordehinojos]

3. And also,

Why did Poppy not talk to his son directly if he was so opposed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq?

The price for letting his son take his own unaided steps, like those of a child who is beginning to learn to walk, has been immense. It has cost, and it is costing too many peoples' lives--both American and innocent Iraqis.

It is quite one thing to take a speed boat and tell his boy, 'here you take the wheel and drive this thing'. It is quite another to hand him the reigns of power and let him drive power.

Perhaps somewhere deep inside of him Poppy wanted his son's invasion of Iraq to succeed and adopted the line that he was staying out of his son's business ...... as if that were credible, or as if he had ever stayed out of his son's business.

I just pray to God that He will block junior's retake of the white house and of our democracy which will be shattered to smithereens even by January 20th.