Very enlightening article on the mentality of Bush

[bpyatt]

Memoir Criticizes Bush 9/11 Response
President Pushed Iraq Link, Aide Says

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 22, 2004; Page A01


On the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, according to a newly published
memoir, President Bush wandered alone around the Situation Room in a
White House emptied by the previous day's calamitous events.

Spotting Richard A. Clarke, his counterterrorism coordinator, Bush
pulled him and a small group of aides into the dark paneled room.

"Go back over everything, everything," Bush said, according to
Clarke's account. "See if Saddam did this."

"But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this," Clarke replied.

"I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I
want to know any shred."

Reminded that the CIA, FBI and White House staffs had sought and
found no such link before, Clarke said, Bush spoke "testily." As he
left the room, Bush said a third time, "Look into Iraq, Saddam."

For Clarke, then in his 10th year as a top White House official,
that day marked the transition from neglect to folly in the Bush
administration's stewardship of war with Islamic extremists. His
account -- in "Against All Enemies," which reaches bookstores today,
and in interviews accompanying publication -- is the first detailed
portrait of the Bush administration's wartime performance by a major
participant. Acknowledged by foes and friends as a leading figure
among career national security officials, Clarke served more than
two years in the Bush White House after holding senior posts under
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He
resigned 13 months ago yesterday.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13607-2004Mar21.html

[JHB]

1. Love the last line:

"It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt,
were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush,
chanting 'invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq,' " Clarke writes.

Not Osama, but another band of terrorists: Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle, and the rest of the PNAC Gallery.

Also love the line just beore it:
In so doing, he estranged allies,
enraged potential friends in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and
produced "more terrorists than we jail or shoot."

Vindication from the highest levels for my having dubbed the invasion "Operation Al Queda Recruiting Drive"

[Moderator]

2. Please edt

to 4 paragraphs, per DU's copyright rules.

Thank you.

[patricia92243]

3. Bush attacked Iraq because Saddam attacked Daddy. Period. The rest was a..

pretense to manufacture a "real reason"..But that doesn't change the fact that Attack Daddy=Attack Iraq!

[izzie]

4. I also think this

It is hard if you are a super power to think some guy in a cave can take you down. Did not King George do this with the minutemen at Concord Bridge?