The one thing Dick couldn't do was to bar me from meeting with the President. If Cheney met with Bush, I would manage to meet with him next. I might not be able to get George to see reason on things (he really was stupid, with a very simplistic view of the world) but sometimes I could tone down his actions or delay them. For instance, almost immediately after taking office George Bush began talking about a 10% cut in all taxes across the board, and this was just to be the start of a multi-year effort to drastically cut taxes. Almost immediately this was told to Grover Norquist, who began promoting it heavily in Congress. Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and I were aghast at what this would do to revenues and the deficit! The best we could come up with was a reduction in the first year to a 5% cut.
It became very clear the dangers we were facing at our first meeting of the National Security Council in early February. By law this is supposed to be the most senior cabinet members and other critical people, a 'mini-cabinet' to contemplate war and peace. Besides the President and the Vice President, you had the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury, the National Security Adviser, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the head of the CIA. Along with these mandatory members, you also had 'invited' members who almost always showed up, like the President's Chief of Staff and the Attorney General.
One of the biggest changes in American politics became obvious at the Cabinet level, and that was the utter decline of the value of being a military veteran. A generation before the majority of the male members of the Cabinet and virtually all of the National Security Council would have seen some form of military service, even if it had only been running the motor pool at Fort Dix. Now it was almost unheard of. In the entire cabinet, at least from what I could determine, the only veterans were Colin Powell, Tony Principi at Veterans Affairs, and me. Tommy Thompson and George Bush had both been in either the Reserves or the National Guard, and they had worked their asses off in order to avoid actually having to serve. The National Security Council was just as bad.
That is not to say that these were bad people. Just because you wore a uniform at some point in the past, that didn't make you some kind of saint or an expert on all matters military. I was a pretty good company level commander and could have probably handled a battalion without too many problems. That did not make me the next Patton! However, it does give you a feeling for what will be required and what should be considered in any discussion of the use of military force.
The meetings of the National Security Council are supposed to be run by the President, with questions being asked of and instructions being given to the other participants. I raised an eyebrow at Colin Powell when as soon as George Bush called the meeting to order he turned it over to the Secretary of State. Dick Cheney opined on the problems we were having with Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis (basically, they weren't doing what we wanted them to do, which was to turn over Saddam Hussein to us for a nice, clean hanging), and then he turned it over to the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Paul Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz then began to recite the issues that we were discovering through our intelligence and surveillance of Iraq. I began taking a few notes. They were routinely thumbing their noses at us and testing the limits of the no-fly zones we had created after the Gulf War. There was an active program to develop a nuclear bomb. They already had chemical weapons. They were hiring Russian scientists to develop biological weapons. They were developing missiles capable of carrying these warheads, not just to Israel, but farther, to Europe. They were in discussions with terrorist groups in Lebanon and North Africa. The bottom line was that we needed to strongly consider some form of stronger response to their aggression.
There was no discussion because Cheney immediately turned the meeting over to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, an Air Force General named Meyers, who had replaced Shelton when he had quit during the nonsense with me in the election. General Meyers promptly reported that he agreed with everything Director Wolfowitz had said, and that it was imperative that we begin preparing a variety of responses to Iraqi aggression. George Bush, on cue, ordered General Meyers to begin developing possible plans.
I cleared my throat, drawing attention to myself. "Excuse me, but I have a few questions."
Before the President could respond, Cheney said, "Carl, this is only a preliminary investigation into these matters for the sake of the President."
"Regardless, I still have some questions, and the President might be interested in hearing those answers." I looked over at George Bush. "Mister President?"
"Go ahead, Carl. Let's hear some questions and answers.", he replied, amused at my trumping Cheney.
"Thank you, Mister President." I turned my head to Wolfowitz. "Mister Director, You claim the Iraqis are developing chemical weapons. They already have them. Gulf War Syndrome was a consequence of low level exposure to them. What has changed to warrant any changes on our part?"
That was the start. I also pushed on details about his other claims. What proof did he have for the nuclear bomb program? Where were the biologicals being developed? Why would an avowed secularist dictator like Hussein want to have anything to do with the terrorist groups Hizbollah or Hamas, which were primarily supported by the Iraqi's mortal enemy, the Iranians? Wolfowitz blustered ferociously about all the classified information the CIA was developing, none of which, of course, could be given in detail to us. I simply nodded.
Then I turned to General Meyers. "General, you must have provided the Director with the information about the attempted violations of the no-fly zone and the other provocations. We've been living with that for the last ten years. Is there anything different now than before? We've been containing these idiots just fine. Why stop?"
To his credit, General Meyers didn't bluster and fulminate. Still, his responses were that Hussein seemed to be increasing the tempo of his provocations and that we were using a lot of resources to contain him. Worst of all, ever since the Gulf War, some of these guys thought combat was a video game.
I looked over at George Bush and shook my head. "Mister President, I have to tell you that this is very disturbing. I can see no good reason why we should go to war, which is what the Secretary and the Director and the Chairman want. Pardon my French, but Saddam Hussein is an asshole, not a threat, and we simply can't go around killing assholes just because they are assholes. We will run out of bullets before we run out of assholes!" Cheney looked furious at this, but Condoleeza Rice looked amused. Powell simply looked thoughtful.
Bush nodded and held up a hand to forestall any responses. "Fair enough, Carl." To Wolfowitz he ordered, "Paul, you need to get a lot more information before we can continue in this direction."