Michael,

Thank you for the Cliff notes.  And here I was thinking the biggest complaint
of liberals was that there was no plan.  oops, that was last week.

-Craig


--- Michael Baier <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> http://slate.msn.com/id/2099277/
>
> The Condensed Bob Woodward
> Slate reads Plan of Attack so you don't have to.
> By Bryan Curtis  Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2004, at 2:51 PM PT
>
> Want to read Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, without plowing
> through all 467 gossip-soaked pages? We can help! Slate has taken
> Woodward's tome and reduced it to a point-by-point executive summary. Grab
> a copy from the your nearest bookstore and read along.
>
> Secrets of the Bushies
>
> Page 9: The first sign of the Bush administration's desire to attack Iraq
> comes days before Bush's 2001 inauguration. Dick Cheney asks outgoing
> Defense Secretary Bill Cohen to brief the president "about Iraq and
> different options." During the briefing, Cheney falls asleep.
>
> Page 25: Hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, Donald Rumsfeld asks Pentagon
> colleagues about the possibility of striking Saddam Hussein. An aide
> records in his notes: "hit S.H. @ same time—not only UBL [Usama Bin
> Laden]."
>
> Page 190: In September 2002, Bush tells the press that Iraq can launch a
> biological or chemical attack within 45 minutes—an assertion that the CIA
> finds completely phony. Director George Tenet refers to it as the "they-can-
> attack-in-45-minutes shit."
>
> Page 250: Karl Rove, a Norwegian-American, is obsessed with the "historical
> duplicity" of the Swedes, who seized Norway back in 1814. This nationalism
> manifests itself as hatred for Swedish weapons inspector Hans Blix.
>
> Page 290: Paul Wolfowitz, one of the administration's fiercest neocons,
> entertains wild theories linking al-Qaida to remnants of Cold War spycraft.
> He wonders whether Bin Laden is in league with former East German
> intelligence agents. Unnamed "heads of state" warn him that al-Qaida may be
> working with ex-KGB officers.
>
> Page 324: Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan hints that the Saudi
> regime will tinker with oil prices to boost the American economy before the
> 2004 elections.
>
> Colin Powell vs. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld
>
> Page 25: Much of Woodward's book involves the administration's efforts to
> marginalize, or completely ignore, Colin Powell. After Rumsfeld and others
> raise the idea of striking Iraq in response to 9/11, Powell tells Gen. Hugh
> Shelton, "What the hell! What are these guys thinking about? Can't you get
> these guys back in the box?"
>
> Page 182-83: Powell reveals that he detests Rumsfeld's circuitous manner of
> speaking—"One would think …"; "Some would say …"—which he dubs "third-
> person passive once removed."
>
> Page 164-66: Cheney tells a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention on Aug. 26,
> 2002, that there's "no doubt" Saddam has weapons of mass destruction.
> Powell goes ballistic at the suggestion.
>
> Page 175: Powell fears that Cheney is losing his mild manner. As the veep
> presses for quick action against Iraq, "Powell detected a kind of fever in
> Cheney. He was not the steady, unemotional rock that he had witnessed a
> dozen years earlier during the run-up to the Gulf War. The vice president
> was beyond hell-bent for action against Saddam."
>
> Page 269-70: Bush informs Powell of his decision to go to war after he
> informs Prince Bandar. After conferring with the president, Powell
> is "semidespondent." (Read Timothy Noah's "Chatterbox" column for more on
> the timing of Bush's decision.)
>
> Donald Rumsfeld vs. the Generals
>
> Page 14: On Feb. 16, 2001, American and British planes bomb Iraqi targets
> to enforce the no-fly zones. No one from the Joint Chiefs of Staff bothers
> to inform the secretary of defense.
>
> Page 6: Pressing for more power, Rumsfeld micromanages Iraq war plans. Gen.
> Tommy Franks tells him (according to insider accounts), "This ain't going
> to work. You can fire me. I'm either the commander or I'm not, and you've
> got to trust me or you don't."
>
> Page 91-92: Bonus Rumsfeld snub: He admits he can't remember vetting
> Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech, the address that has come to define his
> foreign policy. "That speech was not particularly in my area," he explains.
>
> Tommy Franks' Inspirational Profanities
>
> Page 115: Franks to lethargic commanders before the Iraq war: "This is
> fucking serious. You know, if you guys think this is not going to happen,
> you're wrong. You need to get off your ass."
>
> Page 118: To the Joint Chiefs: "You Title X motherfuckers!"
>
> Page 281: On Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's undersecretary for policy: "I
> have to deal with the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth almost
> every day."
>
> Condi Rice as Bush's Consigliere
>
> Page 23: "She is not married and has no immediate family; it seemed she was
> on call for the president 24 hours a day in her West Wing office. ...
> Tending to the president and his priorities was her primary goal."
>
> Page 127: When Karl Rove worries about the perception in the media that
> he's meddling in foreign affairs, Bush says: "Don't worry about it. Condi's
> territorial. She's a woman."
>
> Page 160: Condi dresses down Brent Scowcroft, the former national security
> adviser, for writing an antiwar editorial in Wall Street Journal. Scowcroft
> ends his antiwar campaign.
>
> Dick Armitage as Powell's Consigliere
>
> Page 20: Powell and Armitage—whom Woodward describes as a "cross between
> Daddy Warbucks and a World Wrestling Federation champ"—are best
> friends. "The two talk on the phone so many times each day that aides think
> of them as teenagers joined at the hip, committed to sharing absolutely
> everything."
>
> Page 39: Armitage learns of a forthcoming New York Times story that will
> paint Powell as exceedingly dovish. He convinces the reporter that the
> State Department is hip to the Saddam threat. Or, as he later says
> privately, "Oh, State, they're in the game. They want to get these fuckers."
>
> Page 149: Armitage advises Powell to schedule one-on-one bonding sessions
> with Bush. Powell reports back, "I think we're really making some headway
> in the relationship. I know we really connected."
>
> Page 176: Armitage helped Powell revise the portions of his autobiography
> that concerned his frosty relationship with Dick Cheney. Powell calls the
> finished passages "relatively truthful but not harmful."
>
> George Tenet's Predictive Powers
>
> Page 116-17: Months before the war begins, Tenet assures Iraq's top Kurdish
> leaders that the U.S. military will attack the Baathist regime. Bush has
> issued no such order, but Tenet proves right. As Woodward puts it, "He
> would sell fucking tea to Chinamen to make sure his officers got
> protection."
>
> Page 186-87: Bush cites a CIA report that says 71 percent of the French
> population sees Saddam as a "threat to world peace." The report is bogus—
> the French vigorously oppose the war.
>
> Page 247-49: At a December 2002 briefing, Tenet's deputy makes the case
> that Iraq is harboring weapons of mass destruction. Bush says, "I've been
> told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we've
> got?" Tenet raises his arms and says, "Don't worry, it's a slam-dunk!" To
> date, no WMD have been found in Iraq.
>
> Page 387-99: On March 19, 2003, Tenet informs Bush of CIA reports that
> suggest Saddam and his sons are hiding out on an Iraqi farm. Later, after
> an airstrike ordered by the president, Tenet says, "Tell the president we
> got the son of a bitch." Saddam and his sons survive the attack.
>
> Woodward's Table Scraps
>
> Every Woodward production contains a half-dozen throwaway details that
> would make lesser reporters drool. Here's the best of the lot:
>
> Page 11: Bush as glutton: At a Pentagon briefing, staffers lay out
> peppermint candy for each attendee. Bush scarfs down his peppermint, and
> then begins to eye Bill Cohen's treat, which the former secretary gladly
> relinquishes. Gen. Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, "noticed
> Bush eyeing his mint, so he passed it over."
>
> Page 112: On a Mideast trip, Lynne Cheney lunches with an emir's wife. When
> do the children here in Bahrain begin school? she asks. The emir's wife
> reminds Cheney that she's in Qatar.
>
> Page 184: The TelePrompTer text of Bush's climactic speech to the United
> Nations somehow omits his call for resolutions against the Iraqi regime.
> Bush remembers and ad-libs the line.
>
> Page 186: Bush aide Nick Calio declares his intention to vitiate a
> congressional filibuster. Bush says, "Nicky, what the fuck are you talking
> about, vitiate?"
>
> Page 336: A CIA report suggests that Saddam, whose army can barely muster
> working tanks or planes, has red-and-white submarines patrolling the Tigris
> River. The agency immediately discards the report.
>
> Page 244: Woodward meets Bush at a White House Christmas party in 2002.
> Though it's months before the prez would declare war on Iraq, Bush suggests
> that a sequel to Woodward's previous best seller, Bush at War, should be in
> the works. "Maybe it will be called More Bush at War," Bush says. Laura
> Bush responds, "Let's hope not."
>
> Bryan Curtis is a Slate associate editor. You can e-mail him at
> [log in to unmask]
>
> * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
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