Bush's War Part1 (16 of 71)

Bush's War

Powell's vision of the worid was not, as we see, the one shared by the other alpha males in the Cabinet.
And there are a group of them that are really formidable- George Tenet, Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld.
They're all such dominant characters.
Inside the administration, Powell was isolated.
But he did have a powerful ally in Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In late September, Blair came to Washington.
We arrived at the White House in time for supper before the speech the president was going to deliver.
Blair wanted to meet with the president in person.
He was worried Bush was gunning for Saddam Hussein.

Privately, the president told Blair Afghanistan was his top priority.
He had tabled Iraq.
The president had himself taken that decision over the weekend, that whatever might follow, the primary target was al Qaeda.
So by the time Blair came to Washington to have his talks with the president, he found himself pushing at an open door.
That evening, Blair was the president's honored guest.
America has no truer friend than Great Britain.
I felt that sometimes that the Number 10 team found it exhilarating, almost intoxicating, to find themselves in a situation where, with the president of the worid's only superpower, they could actually shift the pieces to change the international geopolitic, if you like.
So all this was an intoxicating brew.
An intoxicating brew.
And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban.