Who are the owners of the war?

Who are the owners of the war?

By Joseph Galloway
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - WASHINGTON -- When, in American history, has a vice president had so much influence over a decision to go to war -- and how to run the war?

If you answered, "Right now" you would be correct.

At so crucial a time, Vice President Dick Cheney calls the shots, and calls most of them wrong, in cahoots with his old friend Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in a recent speech that Cheney early on formed a "cabal" with Rumsfeld that rode roughshod over the national security policy-making apparatus, and still does.

Cheney and Rumsfeld and their boss, George W. Bush, by many accounts arrived in office five years ago determined to find some excuse to flex American muscle, invade Iraq, take down dictator Saddam Hussein, implant a pro-Western democracy at peace with Israel in the heart of the Middle Eastern oil patch and demonstrate the virtues of a lighter, leaner U.S. military.

The fires were still burning at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when Bush and Cheney began asking if there was even the remotest connection between the bombers and Saddam.

The CIA reported there wasn't, but that didn't matter.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/13319259.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

This gets my vote.......great article.

I like the last paragraph:"Bush believes that God and history will judge his actions. Cheney and Rumsfeld can only hope they can dodge responsibility for their actions now, and in the hereafter."