Reply #9: The New York Times: White House Irked as Powell Airs Iraq Misgivings [View All]

[Jack Rabbit]

From The New York Times
Dated Monday April 19

White House Irked as Powell Airs Iraq Misgivings
By Steven R. Weisman

Washington, April 18 -- For more than a year, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his aides have tacitly acknowledged that he was concerned before the war about what could go wrong once American forces captured Iraq.
But Mr. Powell's apparent decision to lay out his misgivings even more explicitly to the journalist Bob Woodward for a book has jolted the White House and aggravated long-festering tensions in the Bush cabinet. Moreover, some officials said, the book has created problems for the secretary inside the administration just as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and President Bush is plunging into his re-election drive . . . .
That Mr. Bush comes across as sober-minded and resolute in the book, asking for contingency plans for a war soon after the Sept. 11 attacks but not deciding to wage one until the last minute, saves Mr. Powell from any immediate difficulties that might grow from seeming to betray his confidential relationship to a president who prizes loyalty, several officials said.

Read more.

That last sentence makes me wonder if Mr. Weisman was watching the same broadcast I did. Bush came off as a fool who asked question and then acted on less-than-convincing responses.