Thursday, June 23, 2005


Timing for war - Bush wanted political capital



Here's an overlooked remark by Geoff Hoon [then Blair's Defence Secretary] during the Downing St. meeting with Blair (per the minutes report).

            – minutes of the July 2002 meeting –

"[The] Copy addressees ... met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive."   — published in the Sunday Times of London, May 1 2005
                                    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon advised that "the most likely timing in U.S. minds for military action to begin was January [2003], with the timeline beginning 30 days before the U.S. congressional elections."

What a curious assessment for a military planner from the UK to pinpoint a timeline relative to US elections, mid-term elections yet. Not relative to the weather, not relative to negotiating outcomes with allies like Turkey. Relative to the number of days before our mid-term elections.

The timing matters because the resolution was pressed on Congress before the election in order to stampede lawmakers into voting for the war — rather than after the election when they could weigh their consciences without political electoral pressure.
And the Defence Secretary's information was exactly on the mark. Leaders in Congress scheduled an authorization resolution on Iraq in October. It was debated and passed mid-October. [Robert Byrd of WVa said on the floor of the Senate that many town governments across the US allot more time "on an application for a sewer permit" than did Congress to debate a motion to wage war.]
Congressional Record Oct. 10, 2002 [pdf style, 3rd column], Sen. Robert Byrd.

Bush 1999!   – when I "invade ... if I had that much capital ... I'm going to get everything passed I want"

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=761
author Russ Baker, 10.27.2004

"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."
According to [Bush's autobio ghostwriter], 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. . . . .

Republicans, Herskowitz said, felt that Jimmy Carter's political downfall could be attributed largely to his failure to wage a war. He noted that President Reagan and President Bush's father himself had (besides the narrowly-focused Gulf War I) successfully waged limited wars against tiny opponents - Grenada and Panama - and gained politically.


So this is where Bush feels he earned his political capital. On the backs of 1,700 doomed American soldiers.

Credit: Thanks to nycee at dailykos for highlighting portions of Russ Baker's interview.


                          # LINK to FULL post   -->  here           : 6:15 AM