Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush And The Invasion Of Iraq, Leffler - B

                      "However tempting it is to level criticism at President Bush and his advisers - and we most definitely should - we need to recognize, collectively, that the exercise of prudence and the judicious use of power have not, historically, been among our finest qualities as Americans."  

                       Hussein was born into abject poverty in 1937; unwanted by his mother,  and his father unknown. He grew up to be a street fighting thug and sadistic bully. In his early 20's, he was imprisoned for murder. He was a bodyguard for the leader of the Ba'ath party. When the party ascended to power, he became an aide to the president. He was extremely ambitious, led the nationalization of the nation's oil industry, negotiated development deals with many countries, began the modernization of Iraq, and took over in 1978. He had dozens of the party's leaders executed. Two years later, he started an eight year war against Iran. The cost in lives and treasure were immense. He used chemical weapons against the Iranians and afterwards, against the Iraqi Kurds. He developed WMD and invaded Kuwait in 1990. The US led coalition destroyed Iraq's army in days and freed Kuwait. His continued rule of Iraq achieved infrequently seen before levels of violence, caprice, and suffering. His was a totalitarian reign of terror. 

                     When Bush was running for the presidency, he was tutored on foreign affairs by a team assembled by Condoleezza Rice. The group espoused a "militant, hegemonic and missionary role for the United States." The new administration did not adopt any policies on al Qaeda, and wished to only further isolate Hussein. On Sept. 10th, Sec. Rumsfeld made a speech at the Pentagon stating that there was an adversary that posed a significant threat to America - the Pentagon bureaucracy. The following day proved him wrong. Bush's response was "angry yet calm; determined yet dignified; empathetic yet vengeful; reassuring and inspiring." The administration felt that they had missed it and were responsible for the failure to protect the country. There was a palpable fear that another attack would come any day. They resolved that it would never happen again. 

             Bush called our response a Global War On Terror. The administration enhanced cooperation among all of our intelligence agencies and made real progress on the ground in Afghanistan. From the very beginning, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz wanted to attack Iraq. Bush had no interest. Hussein made the mistake of voicing his support for the 9/11 attack, and soon people began to discuss the risks he posed because it was believed he had WMD. "Bush struggled to define his priorities  - inspections, disarmament, containment, regime change." Slowly, the administration moved toward regime change in Iraq as a major goal in the GWOT. A  lengthy visit to Iraq by a highly placed al Qaeda operative fanned the flames of anxiety over the spread of WMD. The hawks ratcheted up the public condemnations of Hussein. On Sept. 12, 2002, Bush spoke at the UN and asked for a resolution mandating Iraq stop supporting terrorism and remove its WMDs. "The speech was met with stony silence." The Security Council eventually demanded a reinitiating of inspections. Inspections began anew and the UN did not find any weapons of mass destruction, but were frustrated with Iraq's foot dragging and lack of cooperation. With troops in the Mideast and warm weather coming, Bush decided to go to war in March. In Iraq, "Saddam Hussein still hoped to outmenouvre the inspectors, and outfox the Bush Administration."

                 On March 19th, Bush announced that the war had begun. The administration had very specific and concrete plans for fighting and winning the war. What it did not have was a plan for what to do after they won. On April 9th, US Marines pulled down the Hussein statue in downtown Baghdad. DOD and State could not agree on what should happen and the result was pure uncontrollable chaos. The man the US put in charge on the ground, Paul Bremer, exacerbated matters by ignoring and running roughshod over the locals. Extensive looting, civil unrest, if not civil war ran rampant across the country. The security situation was so bad that the UN withdrew its people in August. "Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld bears much of the responsibility. He oversaw the war planning. He scrutinized the combat phase of the mission...but showed scant interest in the stability operations...""President Bush stood atop the morass of postwar planning, and did little to uplift it."

                The US forces diligently searched for, but never found, any weapons of mass destruction. Our rationale to start the war was grounded on a false premise. Our occupation of the country was an unmitigated disaster. The genesis of the war was 9/11 and the fact that the administration lived in overwhelming fear of a repeat that would destroy the Bush presidency, and further damage American democracy. That fear, and Bush's hatred of Hussein, are the reasons the US invaded Iraq. "For the US, the geopolitical, psychological, and domestic costs of the intervention persist and reverberate...The conflict besmirched America's reputation and heightened anti-Americanism...Rather than enhancing the spread of liberty, the president and his advisers left office witnessing the worldwide recession of freedom."

               "We need to ponder what happens when there is too much fear, too much power, too much hubris - and insufficient prudence."