Decision Points
President Bush’s 2010 memoir, Decision Points, is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the key decisions which occurred during his two terms in office. Mr. Bush’s style is clear, direct, easy to read, and he adds a touch of humor. I found Decision Points both enjoyable and enlightening. I had forgotten how many significant events occurred during Mr. Bush’s presidency. Given my Iraq deployments, I was most interested in his decisions relating to the war in Iraq.
I was in Quantico teaching new Marine officers on 9/11. We all understood the world had changed. We were at war, and we expected it would not be long before the Marine Corps got into the fight. In the meantime, as instructors, all we could do was prepare lieutenants to the best of our ability and wait until we were sent back to the operating forces. From our distant perspective, it seemed like everything was going well in Afghanistan. The Taliban had been deposed and a new Afghan government was taking shape. We seemed to have missed our chance.
Then came rumblings of war against Iraq. In late 2002 and early 2003, U. S. rhetoric heated up and more U. S. troops were sent to Kuwait. In Quantico, we were little more than spectators, but we were generally supportive. We wanted a chance to strike at those we believed threatened the security of the United States.
In early 2003, as war in Iraq appeared more likely, General Tony Zinni spoke at Quantico. His remarks focused on Afghanistan and Iraq. He was concerned we were taking our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and stretching our forces too thin. He said, “I’m a one war at a time kind of guy.” This struck a chord with me and I am ashamed to say it was not something I had given much thought before General Zinni mentioned it. The United States could decide when to go to war in Iraq; why choose to do so when all our attention ought to be focused on Afghanistan? Zinni felt we were steering toward war in Iraq and he was troubled there was no meaningful Congressional debate. In Decision Points, President Bush articulated his reasoning and the steps which led to war in Iraq.
President Bush argued that, “The lesson of 9/11 was that if we waited for a danger to fully materialize, we would have waited too long.”[1] He believed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and would not hesitate either to use them or to give them to terrorists who might employ them against the U. S. or its allies. The President felt he could not take this chance. He decided, “We would confront the threat from Iraq, one way or another.”[2]
The United States pushed Saddam to give up his WMD program and to allow United Nations inspections. Saddam failed to comply with U. N. resolutions and U. S. demands. The only reasonable conclusion was that Saddam had WMDs and discounted the likelihood the U. S. would go to war. Saddam miscalculated. In mid-March 2003, U. S. forces and their coalition allies invaded Iraq.
Any decision to launch a preemptive war must be founded on solid intelligence. President Bush believed the intelligence reports that Saddam had WMDs, but they turned out to be incorrect. Saddam had destroyed his stocks of WMDs, but did not want to admit this publicly. Saddam could have avoided a U. S. invasion by providing evidence he had no WMDs and allowing international inspectors. In the end, Saddam was more concerned about Iran and how it would react to an admission he had no WMDs than he was of a U. S. invasion of Iraq which he believed would not occur.
Saddam was wrong. He was deposed, captured, tried, and executed. U. S. forces in Iraq proved insufficient to occupy the country and maintain control. Iraq split along sectarian lines and descended into violence as long-suppressed grievances came to the surface. An insurgency began as terrorists flooded into Iraq to fight U. S. forces in this new front in the War on Terror.
President Bush is candid in his assessment of the intelligence failure which led to war in Iraq. “In retrospect, of course, we all should have pushed harder on the intelligence and revisited our assumptions. But at the time, the evidence and the logic pointed in the other direction. If Saddam doesn’t actually have WMD, I asked myself, why on earth would he subject himself to a war he will almost certainly lose?”[3] Mr. Bush also refuted the charge that the intelligence had been manipulated to justify the war, “Nobody was lying. We were all wrong. The absence of WMD stockpiles did not change the fact that Saddam was a threat.”[4] The President also admitted there was a cost to pay, “the reality was that I had sent American troops into combat based in large part on intelligence that proved false. That was a massive blow to our credibility — my credibility — that would shake the confidence of the American people.”[5] President Bush would struggle to regain the trust of some Americans (and international partners) throughout the remainder of his time in office.
My feelings on the Iraq war are complex. I did not miss my opportunity to serve in Iraq as I had initially feared; the war went on far longer than any of us expected. I am proud to have served in Iraq (and throughout my career) with so many great Americans. I am sorry for those who lost loved ones in Afghanistan or Iraq as well as for those who live with injuries (visible or not) they sustained overseas. But I also feel deep sympathy for President Bush. I believe he ordered the invasion of Iraq in good conscience; I know he did not take the decision lightly. I am sorry for the burden he carries, but I hope it is eased — even if only a little — because he shared his story with us.
- If you are interested in purchasing President Bush’s book, Decision Points, please use this link: https://amzn.to/43jcs52
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[1] George W. Bush, Decision Points, Kindle edition (Crown, 2010), 229.
[2] Bush, 229.
[3] Bush, 242.
[4] Bush, 262.
[5] Bush, 262.