October Surprise: Bush talked privately about invading Iraq in 1999

[jackson]

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.

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

[Quixote1818]

1. "He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake," Herskowit

[Maat]

7. Thanks for the link. I passed it on.

Let me get this straight. It's o.k. to take a couple of thousand precious U.S. children away forever from their parents .... so that you can earn political capital. Not to mention 30,000 precious Iraqi family members away from their families. What kind of sociopathic behavior is this?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Just what we always feared

Bushboy sent 1100+ Americans and untold thousands of Iraqis to their deaths just so he show Poppy how not to "waste political capital." Just to make Poppy proud.

:puke:

[jackson]

6. Or to one-up his father. I think in Kitty Kelley's book, she talks about

how George Sr. and Barbara never thought W. would amount to much. So he's showing his dad and taking out his lack of parental approval as a kid on Iraq and the rest of us.

[jackson]

8. And in Hatfield's bio, he discloses that when bush's sister died

when he was 5 or 6, his parents didn't even have the decency to tell him. They just said she left, like she went off with a relative to live. Real close, family value types, those bushes. It's little wonder Jr. is so screwed up, tho that doesn't excuse his behavior. As republicans like to say, he is responsible for what he says and does....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. The lesson he learned: it family values to lie; extends that to US public

[aquart]

10. Mom and Dad were right.

Although worst president in the history of the United States is a kind of success.

[Confident]

3. unreal

[acmavm]

4. These little snips explain SO MUCH:

<snip>
According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."

Bush's circle of pre-election advisers had a fixation on the political capital that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher collected from the Falklands War. Said Herskowitz: "They were just absolutely blown away, just enthralled by the scenes of the troops coming back, of the boats, people throwing flowers at and her getting these standing ovations in Parliament and making these magnificent speeches."
<snip>

[jackson]

5. In 2003, Bush's father said he disagreed with his son's invasion of Iraq.

Pretty damaging stuff....

[unblock]

9. and ENTIRELY predictable. children of leaders rarely make good leaders

for all the wise things our founders did in creating our constitution, the one thing that always amazes and surprises me is that they didn't ban children of presidents from becoming presidents themselves. you would have thought that they would have wanted that simple protection against the u.s. turning into a de facto monarchy.

[Sara Beverley]

11. Straight from the PNAC play book.

In a way, we need to be thankful that Iraq was not as smooth as they thought it would be (except for the many lives already lost on both sides.) Had it been the "cake walk" Tenant described, we would be preparing to invade Iran right now and Bush would be elected on Nov 2.
I am so sorry for the loss of our children's lives but I just have to find silver lining in this sad, sad state of affairs.

[jackson]

12. You're right.

I'm sorry for the loss of lives caused by Bush/Cheney. But if it had been quick and painless, we'd already be in at least one other invasion by now....