How Did We Ever Get Into this Mess ?

I thought I'd start at the Beginning. So, I have started to read...Bob Woodward's "Bush at War".

Not too dry and as I read the Notes that describe the efforts made to garner a true description of the events I think Bob did a good job. Transparency is order of the day.....lots of interviews and actual notes used.

My first question starts at the beginning, September 12,2001. Dubya starts meeting with his circle; Rummy, Rice, Card, Powell, Cheney, and a host of others. Note that the inner circle doesn't really include the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And, as the book states , Cheney sort of follows along and he is not really a strategic driver. It is acknowledged that Cheney has plenty of experience and has gone to war before but the real thinker here is "dubya". It is just mystifying that dubya is the thinker that everyone is making sure he is happy with the way things are moving forward. I know the guy got elected. I know he is the leader of the free world. But shouldn't there be some consensus building going on and some lack of arrogance on dubyas part that maybe he doesn't have all the answers?? So from the very beginning I have a problem. Why are we living with the decisions of this one guy? Or , for something this important, why are we living with the decisions of this small group of people?

The answer may lie in the idea that we elected him and he is the decision maker. But shouldn't there be some inclusion of leadership other than just this administration? These guys and gal meet on a Saturday , noodle through a strategy and viola we are moving in on Afghanistan. Not much thought given to a number of things. There were plenty more options than what they took and it was too small a group with really one guy driving the thinking.

And, the thinking was flawed. Much of it was driven by what the President felt was being wished by the people. Rather than the smartest way to punish the terrorists , make them stop , and go back to normal. Even if dubya was the smartest guy in the room, and he wasn't, he really should have sought out more input. Share the burden, get some "buying in" going on. Gee he really wasn't listening to the smartest guy in the room ....Colin Powell. It wasn't an option of either have a police investigation or go to all-out war. May be a covert ops type of thing that included plenty of drones waiting and watching for the bad guys to make a move.

There was a bright spot. They went to Putin and asked some serious favors. He granted them. Now how do we get from 2002 with Putin granting all kinds of military landing rights to 2008 with Putin threatening us with Missiles in Poland??