Dubya's Dilemma: Daddy Doesn't Support the Iraq War
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...
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