First Thoughts

I'm only about 5 pages into the Woodward book, and already things are popping out, driving me nuts.

First, it's amazing to me the lengths that Rove, Hughes, Bush, Cheney and Co. will go to keep up the fiction that Bush is the strong leader in this White House. Occasionally, the cracks show through and Woodward subtly picks up on it. Bush tells Woodward about the November 21, 2001 meeting that he had with Rumsfeld where he asks Rummy to begin drawing up plans for an invasion of Iraq, and Bush clearly paints the scene as if he is a strong war leader, alone coming to this decision in order to protect his people. Woodward notes, however, "In the interviews the president said he could not recall if he had talked to Vice President Cheney before he took Rumsfeld aside." Yet, in the next paragraph, Woodward's own skepticism about this statement shows through as he recounts how Bush told him that he meets with Cheney constantly during the day and Cheney has full access to him at all times. And Woodward makes it clear that Cheney was driving the Iraq invasion -- Cheney was absolutely obsessed with it. The idea that Bush didn't discuss this with Cheney before going to Rumsfeld is so fantastic that it's amazing Bush would even try to suggest it. That's how important this fiction is to the White House, and also how transparent it is, since Woodward clearly didn't buy it.

I'm also struck with how much this book confirms the veracity of Richard Clarke's book. Before the inauguration, Woodward writes that Cheney decides Bush should get a briefing from the outgoing Secretary of Defense William Cohen on what Cheney thought was the most important national security issue: Iraq. (Interesting that Cheney should decide this for Bush, huh?) Woodward reports that Cheney falls asleep during this briefing. Some people have pointed to the fact that this shows that Bush was in charge, but I interpret this differently. To me, it reinforces the idea that Cheney had already made up his mind about how to deal with Iraq that he didn't need to hear anything else on the subject.

Oh, by the way, Woodward writes that Bush received a second critical national security brief a few days later from George Tenet, on what Tenet thought were the three major threats to American national security. No. 1 was .... surprise, surprise... Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. #2 was the increasing threat of WMD and #3 was China. Iraq, Woodward writes, was barely mentioned.

As long as the Bush Campaign is keeping the Woodward book on its list of recommended reading, someone owes Richard Clarke a big apology.
- posted by Joshua @ 1:50 PM