Dubya's Dilemma: Daddy Doesn't Support the Iraq War
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By TERESA HAMPTON
Editor, Capitol Hill Blue
Jun 14, 2004, 01:00

The Iraqi war that has so divided Americans is also causing a rift in the family of President George W. Bush. The President’s father, George H.W. Bush – 41st President of the United States – disagrees with his son’s decisions in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which is why the former President has not commented in public on the war.

"The President and I discuss the war privately," the elder Bush said in an interview earlier this year. "That is the way it will remain."

But sources close to the Bush family say the elder Bush thinks his son has mishandled the war in Iraq.

"They disagree on the war," says a family confidante. "Former President Bush believes the U.S. should have sought more support before invading Iraq and feels his son did not work hard enough to secure the support of allies."

Former President Bush built an unprecedented coalition of allies, including countries in the Middle East, for Desert Storm, the Gulf War that ended Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He also enjoyed support from the United Nations. But his son invaded Iraq without UN support or the support of any prominent Middle Eastern nations.

Sources also say the elder Bush, who once headed the Central Intelligence Agency, faults his son for pressuring the CIA to provide hastily-prepared and faulty intelligence to support plans to invade Iraq.

Rumors of a rift between father and son have circulated in Washington for months and White House watchers noted, with interest, the lack of public support from the elder Bush for his son’s military action against Iraq.

"George H.W. Bush is a pro," says Darlene Atkins, a former campaign worker for the elder Bush. "He makes sure the facts are on his side before he moves.  It concerns him that his son did not exercise what he feels was appropriate caution before launching the war with Iraq."

Bush’s father has told Republican leaders that he fears Iraq will cost his son a second term in the White House, calling the war "his read-my-lips donnybrook," a reference to the elder Bush’s flip-flop on tax increases that many feel led to his defeat in the 1992 elections.

In addition, the former President has told his son that he "messed up big time" in trying to tie Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks against the United States. The elder Bush points out that a State Department assessment released after the September 11 attacks lists 45 countries (including the United States) where al-Qaeda operated and notes that Iraq was not one of those countries.

John McLaughlin, Deputy Director of the CIA, told Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Iraq was not on the list. A spokesman for the Deputy Secretary confirmed McLaughlin’s briefing of Wolfowitz.

"The problem President Bush has when it comes to CIA intelligence is that his daddy knows a lot more about what goes on at Langley than he does," says a former intelligence officer.  "He also knows how the White House can drive the outcome of intel assessments."

Former Congressman Lee Hamilton agrees.

"My concern in these situations, always, is that the intelligence that you get is driven by the policy, rather than the policy being driven by the intelligence," says Hamilton, who is now with the Woodrow Wilson Institute, a Washington think tank. "This is not a problem unique to George Bush. It's every president I've known, and I've worked with seven or eight of them All, at some time or another, used intelligence to support their political objectives."

"Information is power, and the temptation to use information to achieve the results you want is almost overwhelming," Hamilton adds. "The whole intelligence community knows exactly what the president wants [regarding Iraq], and most are in their jobs because of the president – certainly the people at the top – and they will do everything they can to support the policy."

This misuse of intelligence is at the heart of differences between Bush, the President, and Bush the father and former President.

As public support for the war wanes, political strategists have urged the former President to come out publicly for his son’s war but their arguments have fallen on defiant ears.

"It’s easy to see where President Bush got his stubborn streak," sighs one White House political operative.


-- Modified on 6/15/2004 5:08:51 PM