First,
why did Son Bush fail to consult, much less follow, the advice and
counsel of his
father particularly on Iraq?
Many
drew comfort from the fact that although Son Bush lacked any
foreign
policy knowledge or experience, that was his father's strength, and the
assumption was that
Son Bush would not just seek his father's counsel, but that he would
follow it. That
obviously didn't happen and the first question is why? Several of
these Webpages provide compelling
evidence of, and
reasons
why, Son Bush rejected his Father's policies (see
Bush
Father
& Son Psychology,
Bush
Father & Son Differences,
Iraq
(sorry to say it was
personal) and why Father
Bush
hasn't had more influence on his son. For
example, after Father Bush
and Son Bush got into a shouting match over Iraq in the summer of 2002,
Son Bush agreed
to talk to Secretary of State Colin Powell who
had largely been kept out of the
loop on the Iraq war
plans as well as most other questions. But since both father and son
also agreed that they
would not discuss it again, Father Bush had limited options
to
further influence his son's policies.
Second,
how could such “wise old men” as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin
Powell,
and Paul O’Neill have not just shared Son Bush’s miscalculations, but
in fact implemented plans based on these miscalculations, and then
continued on the same path for so long even though it was clear major
mistakes had been made?
Many
of us also drew comfort from the fact that Son Bush surrounded himself
with
not just very experienced and knowledgeable people like Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Powell, and
O’Neill, but so many from his father's administration. Thus the
second question is not
how Son Bush could decide to invade Iraq based on so many
miscalculations and
such bad intelligence, but rather how the experienced people around him
failed to raise the right questions and went along and
implemented the flawed plans -- and then
failed to make changes for so long. Clearly a major part of the answer is that Cheney
and Rumsfeld and their staffs believed it had been a grave mistake to not go
after Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. But also Cheney and Rumsfeld had a strained and competitive
relationship with Father Bush while the "moderates," like Powell, who
were close to Father Bush, were sidelined and ignored. And these Webpages also propose that
part of
the
answer is
Son Bush's flawed decision making process (see
How Bush Makes Decisions), part is
“group-think,” part is the role given to domestic politics, and part is
Son Bush’s personality (see
How Bush
Gets His Way).
And
Third, how did someone
with so little experience, and with such a
different agenda,
ever get elected in the first place?
We
know that Son Bush had the weakest resume of any serious presidential candidate
in
modern times and has been charitably described by even family members
as “a
late bloomer.”
Simply put, he not only lacked experience and knowledge in so many
complex issues, but also lacked the
intellectual drive and
stamina to hear
opposing facts and views, and
the self-confidence or self-knowledge to admit mistakes and change course.
The Political
System Reform Webpage
(and soon to be published new The Great Point website) analyzes how we got into this mess by offering three reasons our
political system
has failed us, and proposes solutions to fix it so we nominate and
elect our best rather than
someone with a name and a political/PR machine and will to win at any
costs... in these
treacherous times, we cannot afford anything less than the best!