Bush Pre-War Blunder, Amazing, Sad Story

[gympunk]

Here's an amzing bit of sad, fateful history culled from "State of Denial" book chronicaling Bushs' blundering rush to war. BTW the Whitehouse verified the storys accuracy. This problem alone almost guaranteed our current state of chaos in Iraq. The issue was never resolved.

On January 20, 2003, President Bush signed a secret National Security
Presidential Directive, NSPD-24. The subject: setting up an "Iraq
Postwar Planning Office" within the Defense Department for the expected
invasion of Iraq. Rumsfeld picked Jay Garner, a 64-year-old retired
three-star general and defense industry executive to head the postwar
office.

** Six weeks later, Garner went to the White House, mid-morning on
Friday, February 28, 2003, to meet President Bush for the first time. In
the Situation Room, Garner passed around copies of his handout, an 11-
point presentation, and dove right in. He said four of the nine tasks
his small team was supposed to be in charge of in Iraq under Bush's
NSPD-24 were plainly beyond their capabilities, including dismantling
weapons of mass destruction, defeating terrorists, reshaping the Iraqi
military and reshaping the other internal Iraqi security institutions.
The president nodded. No one else intervened, though Garner had just
told them he couldn't be responsible for crucial postwar tasks -- the
ones that had the most to do with the stated reasons for going to war in
the first place -- because his team couldn't do them. The import of what
** he had said seemed to sail over everyone's heads.

Garner next described how he intended to divide the country
into regional groups, and moved on
to the interagency plans. "Just a minute," the president interrupted.
"Where are you from?" "Florida, sir." "Why do you talk like that?" he
asked, apparently trying to place Garner's accent. "Because I was born
and raised on a ranch in Florida. My daddy was a rancher." "You're in,"
the first rancher said approvingly. His brother Jeb was governor of the
state, and the president visited regularly.

[xer0xed]

That's pretty careless. Makes him seem almost indifferent to the success of the endeavor right from the start.

[createenjock]

How horrible, if my dad Mr.GOP read that he'd say something like "Well what aobut Clinton" I've come to realize his politics are way off base.