From Capitol Hill Blues:
Role reversal: President wants war, Pentagon urges caution.
By Doug Thompson
Senior Pentagon officials are quietly urging President Bush to slow down his headlong rush to war with iraq."We have a dangerous role reversal here" one Pentagon source tells Capitol Hill Blues "The civilians are urging war and the uniformed officers are urging caution."
"This is not Desert Storm," one of ther Joint Chiefs is reported to have told Rumsfeld "We don't have the backing of other Middle Eastern nations. We don't have the backing of any our allies except Britain and we're advocating a policy that says we will invade another nation that is not currently attacking us or invading any of our allies."
Secretarty of State Colin Powell agrees with his former colleagues in the Pentagon and has told the President he may be pursuing a "dangerous course."
An angry Rumsfeld, who backs Bush without question, is said to have told the Joint Chiefs to get in line or find other jobs. Bush is also said to be "extremely angry" at what he perceives as growing Pentagon opposition to his role as Commander in Chief.
"The President considers this nation to be at war," a white House source says, "and as such, considers any opposition to his policies to be no less than an act of treason."
But conversations with sources within the Bush administration, the Pentagon, the FBI and the intelligence community indicate a deepening rift between the professionals who wage war for a living and the administration civilians who want to send them into battle.
Pentagon planners privately refer to the pending Iraq conflict as a
"Bush league war" somrthing that may be fought more for political gain than anything else.
In addition capitol Hill Blues has learned that both House Speaker
Dennis J. Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist have told the White House that that they have increasing numbers of Republicans in both houses raising doubts about the war.
"Nobody in the party wants to come out publicly and tell the President he is wrong," says one Hill source close to the GOP leadership, "But we don't have the kind of unity we need on this thing. It could blow apart on us at any time."
The whole article is at
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artma...ter_1587.shtml