Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill collaborated with writer Ron Suskind (former Wall Street Journal reporter), who interviewed hundreds of people and had access to 1,900 internal documents, about the Bush White House is called: "The Price of Loyalty." He was fired by George Bush for his disagreement with Bush's tax cuts. As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a permanent member of the National Security Council.
In the book, O'Neill says that the president did not make decisions in a methodical way: there was no free-flow of ideas or open debate. At cabinet meetings, he says the president was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection," forcing top officials to act "on little more than hunches about what the president might think." (CBS - Bush Sought `Way' To Invade Iraq? - March 22, 2004) O'Neill says when he had one-on-one meetings with the president, he would talk and the president would sit and presumably be listening. (Maybe he was listening to the voices in his head or thinking about another shot of J&B?) While that other conservative, Ronald Reagan would at times sleep in cabinet meetings, it appears as if George W. Bush was "disengaged" and inattentive, "especially on domestic issues." He says his meetings with the president were "mostly a monologue" of him talking. This is not the first president Paul O'Neill worked for so George Bush's style and attitude bothered him. He that President Bush was disengaged, at least on domestic issues, and that disturbed him. "And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations. From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go, says O'Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11." (CBS) O'Neill says from the very beginning it was all about Iraq. O'Neill said that questions -- such as, "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying Go find me a way to do this.." (O'Neill) Everyone acknowledges that the unilateralism of pre-emption was a giant leap from previous policy, but 9/11 was the Pearl Harbor the neocons were waiting for to carry out their plans to conquer Iraq. Continued: More: http://pnews.org/ArT/Xray/BPet.shtml
