Bush's vision: The real thing?

This article gives us a glimpse at another facet of Bush's vision of war, and why he wound up being especially receptive to the appeals of the "neoconservatives" and their grand fantasies of wars of liberation.

Bush Wanted To Invade Iraq If Elected in 2000 by Russ Baker, Guerrilla News Network 10/27/04.  Also available at CommonDreams.org.

Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

"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." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker." ...

According to Herskowitz, 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."

Once again, the long shadow of Dark Lord Dick Cheney appears.  Cheney has been one incredibly destructive public figure.  One of the worst in American history, actually.

Baker continues:

Bush's circle of pre-election advisers had a fixation on the political capital that British Prime Minister MargaretThatcher collected from the Falklands War. Said Herskowitz: "They were just absolutely blown away, just enthralled by the scenes of the troops coming back, of the boats, people throwing flowers at [Thatcher] and her getting these standing ovations in Parliament and making these magnificent speeches."

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. But there were successful small wars, and then there were quagmires, and apparently George H.W. Bush and his son did not see eye to eye.

Josh Marshall puts high credibility in this story in a 10/31/04 post.  So does James Moore, a journalist who has been covering Bush for 15 years:  Bush's Tactical Lying by James Moore, Democrats.com 10/30/04.   (Via Steve Gilliard).