Wilkerson: Bush was manipulated by his own cabinet in run-up to war

Late yesterday, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff slammed hawkish elements of the White House for how they conducted business in the run-up to war in Iraq.  This is pretty revealing:

In an Associated Press interview, former Powell chief of staff LawrenceWilkerson also said President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from thedetails" of postwar planning. Underlings exploited Bush's detachmentand made poor decisions, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary ofDefense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. He said Cheney must havesincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terrorassaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot ora nefarious bastard."

On the question of detaineespicked up in Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terror,Wilkerson said Bush heard two sides of an impassioned argument withinhis administration. Abuse of prisoners, and even the deaths of some whohad been interrogated in Afghanistan and elsewhere, have bruised theU.S. image abroad and undermined support for the Iraq war.

Cheney'soffice, Rumsfeld aides and others argued "that the president of theUnited States is all-powerful, that as commander in chief the presidentof the United States can do anything he damn well pleases," Wilkersonsaid.

On the other side were Powell, others at theState Department and top military brass, and occasionally CondoleezzaRice, who was then national security adviser, Wilkerson said.

Powellraised frequent and loud objections, his former aide said, once yellinginto a telephone at Rumsfeld: "Donald, don't you understand what youare doing to our image?"

I hate to say, "I told you so," but this pretty much confirms what I had thought all along about how things went before the war began.  Bush was an outsider to the inner circle that wanted to get rid of Saddam even before 9/11.  The President also was manipulated by this group, and he did little to verify the prewar intelligence that was supplied to him by the most hawkish faction of the Administration.  Call it his fault or not, this is likely what happened.

Lastly, Wilkerson alluded to the rift between Powell and Rumsfeld that -- if you have ever read about the relationship between the two over the years -- was fueled by the Vietnam Veteran's perception that Rumsfeld thought our reputation with the international community is always a moot issue because we are the number one super power.  The ongoing situation abroad is now feeling the effects of a policy that downgraded the importance of the political side of war.

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