Bush's War From Day One

Newsweek - In Woodward's telling, Bush was deeply involved in the details of the invasion plans from the moment he first grabbed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's elbow in November 2001 and asked, 'What kind of war plan do you have for Iraq?' But at no time did the president sit down with his war cabinet and debate whether the war on Iraq would distract from the war on terror -- or whether the risk of postwar Iraq's becoming a failed state outweighed the reward of getting rid of Saddam Hussein."

In Woodward's portrait, President Bush is single-minded, and possibly simple-minded, in his resolve. He seems to have relied more on divine guidance than the considered opinions of his top advisers.

Bush was so free of doubt about going to war that he didn't even ask most of his top advisers what they thought. Bush explained that he already knew that Vice President Dick Cheney was gung-ho, and he decided not to ask Powell or Rumsfeld. "I could tell what they thought," Bush told Woodward. "I didn't need to ask them their opinion about Saddam Hussein or how to deal with Saddam Hussein." Rumsfeld told Woodward that he couldn't recall whether Bush had ever asked him, "Do you think I should go to war?"