‘Another War’ for Bush

The Deputy Editor of the Washington Post Bob Woodward, who scooped the Watergate Scandal in 1972, is still working as an investigative reporter for 30 years since then. Once anyone is ‘caught’ by him, even the secretly operating organizations such as the CIA, the FRB, and the Department of Defense unveil their reality. Especially, an administration that newly came into power is a good `prey` for him. He is publishing a book called Bush At War, which unveils the inside story of the George W. Bush Administration, after publishing Agenda, which disclosed the interior of the Bill Clinton Administration that came into power in 1993. This book was written based on the 4-hour exclusive interview with the President Bush and talks with some 100 major figures. The following is a summary of the book that was reported in the Washington Post on the 16th and 17th.

Veiled Enmity of the Power: The Secretary of State Collin Powell, who was watching President Bush addressing at the UN General Assembly on September 12th, almost had a heart attack at one point. The President Bush was reading the manuscript that was not revised. The President Bush stumbled a little and added, “We will work with the UN Security Council for the needed Resolution against Iraq.” The Secretary Powell breathed a sigh of relief. It was the moment that the interior battle for this one sentence was finished with his victory.

He had been advocating the international cooperation doctrine against the Vice President Dick Cheney and the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had been insisting on a military attack against Iraq by America alone. The key point of his doctrine was passing the Resolution against Iraq in the UN Security Council.

He drew out the support for the international cooperation doctrine through a negotiation with the resident Bush on August 5, when the atmosphere was leaning toward a single-handed attack. However, since the Vice-President Cheney and the Secretary Rumsfeld constantly made a protest against the UN address manuscript, the portion that asked the UN Resolution was added to the manuscript just the night before the address. The Secretary Powell was even held in check by the White House Political Advisor Karl Robe. The Advisor Robe judged that there was an intention in Powell`s the middle-of-the-road policy to secure his political status although the President Bush got sacrificed.

For a few months after the 9.11 Terror, the Secretary Powell was prohibited to be on TV. He illustrated that time as `a time to be in the icebox` according to one of his men Deputy Secretary of Defense, Richard Amitage. However, he was supported by the military, so the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers directly reported to the Secretary of Powell excluding his immediate superior the Secretary Rumsfeld.

The President Bush relied on the White House Diplomatic and Security Advisor Kondoliza Rice during this veiled enmity. He called the Advisor Rice ‘a very exhaustive person and always taking care of me like a hen’.

The secret of the Afghan War=Even the Bush Administration did not know that the Afghan War was going to be over so soon. The way to send 50,000 troops there was once examined.

The early winning was made possible by obtaining support from the Afghan militarists. For that reason, the six teams of the CIA scattered 70 million dollars in 100-dollar bills. The 10-people advance party with a code name ‘Jawbreaker’ landed on Afghanistan first on September 27th of last year with 3 million dollars in a bag.

The personality of the President Bush=He called himself a man, who was not a textbook figure but a man who followed his intuition and instinct. Sometimes, he got angry like a fire. He thinks he will get a chance to achieve the world peace. He said the important thing is the vision.

He showed his ambition to reform the world order through head start and unilateral actions and talked about Iraq first, and then mentioned about North Korea and the Dictator Kim, Jong-il.

He sometimes substitutes the international relation to a personal relation. He, who got impressed by listening that the Russian President Bladimir Putin received a cross from his mother, immediately asked him, “Can I call you Bladimir from now on?”

A letter from a media man=The President Bush was paying attention to the reaction of the press about the war. A few weeks after the 9.11 Terror, the CEO of the Fox News Channel Roger Ales sent a secret letter to him. The letter said, “If you do not assume the most severe actions possible against the terror, the support of the public will disappear.” The Fox News is considered to be the most conservative press.

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com