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Now this isn't a "were the reasons for going in worth it" topic which have been done to death, I am talking purely about the political power he had as President. While being the President he does have a lot of power after 9/11 he had MANY in congress from the top down pushing for the wars and recommending it. But regardless of how many may have supported it as President would Bush alone have been able to tell everyone "I don't care what you think, there will be no war or ground troops sent"?
So while obviously he was for it, with so many others for war how much of a difference could it have made had he been vehemently against it?
As Commander in Chief the President has very broad powers with the use of the military including not deploying them. I would suggest that If Congress wanted to prosecute a war without the cooperation of the President they would first have to make a declaration or war and then attempt to impeach President if he refused to prosecute it.
Doing a little research appears there is lot of debate as to whether dereliction of duty is impeachable offense.
Because "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" was a term of art used in English impeachments, a plausible reading supported by many scholars is that the grounds for impeachment can be not only the defined crimes of treason and bribery, but also other criminal or even noncriminal behavior amounting to a serious dereliction of duty. That interpretation is disputed, but it is agreed by virtually all that the impeachment remedy was to be used in only the most extreme situations, a position confirmed by the relatively few instances in which Congress has used the device.
The issue isn't just Bush or congress. We, the American people, had just had 3000 of our fellow citizens slaughtered by Muslim savages. WE, the American people, demanded justice, or some semblance of it. Our first response was to send in a handful of special forces soldiers and CIA operatives to work with the Northern Alliance to take down Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and to kill OBL. The American people were not satisfied when all we did was bomb some mountains and make little ones out of big ones. And while this approach was in fact, in hindsight, perhaps the best way to defeat OBL. We wanted blood. Congress, and the Bush admin followed suit-though they undoubtedly had the same feelings as we the people did.
I suggest googling Project for a New American Century. Cheney and Rumsfeld were licking their chomps for an excuse to invade the ME. Jeb Bush also signed the original charter of principles. Bush would have had a hard time not going into Afghanistan but Iraq is all on his shoulders. The buck stops at the President.
I didn't just "want blood". Bush & Co wanted to go into Iraq from the get go. Don't you remember Rumsfeld saying that Iraq had better targets than Afghanistan? Now you're saying that the wars were our own darn fault? How dare you?
1. They manipulated misinformation. They fed the public AND the congress with it. Excuses:
a. weapons of mass destruction-OOPS
b. Saddam is killing his own people (better WE go in there and kill them ourselves?!!).
c. We're bringing democracy to the region. Really? Since when Islamic countries are good with democracy? Democracy and Islam are incongruent. All those years kissing Saudi ass and they hadn't figured it out yet?
Stop making stuff up. Bush and Cheney WANTED to go to Iraq because Saddam annoyed the Saudis. The same way IRAN is annoying the Saudis.
STOP attributing that cluster you know what to the taxpayers. Bush & Co have caused a lot of death and damage. We're still living with the consequences of their heinous actions.
I didn't just "want blood". Bush & Co wanted to go into Iraq from the get go. Don't you remember Rumsfeld saying that Iraq had better targets than Afghanistan? Now you're saying that the wars were our own darn fault? How dare you?
1. They manipulated misinformation. They fed the public AND the congress with it. Excuses:
a. weapons of mass destruction-OOPS
b. Saddam is killing his own people (better WE go in there and kill them ourselves?!!).
c. We're bringing democracy to the region. Really? Since when Islamic countries are good with democracy? Democracy and Islam are incongruent. All those years kissing Saudi ass and they hadn't figured it out yet?
Stop making stuff up. Bush and Cheney WANTED to go to Iraq because Saddam annoyed the Saudis. The same way IRAN is annoying the Saudis.
STOP attributing that cluster you know what to the taxpayers. Bush & Co have caused a lot of death and damage. We're still living with the consequences of their heinous actions.
The issue isn't just Bush or congress. We, the American people, had just had 3000 of our fellow citizens slaughtered by Muslim savages. WE, the American people, demanded justice, or some semblance of it. Our first response was to send in a handful of special forces soldiers and CIA operatives to work with the Northern Alliance to take down Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and to kill OBL. The American people were not satisfied when all we did was bomb some mountains and make little ones out of big ones. And while this approach was in fact, in hindsight, perhaps the best way to defeat OBL. We wanted blood. Congress, and the Bush admin followed suit-though they undoubtedly had the same feelings as we the people did.
Revenge killing in Afghanistan wasn't the problem. It was the foolish idea of combining that with nation building and winning hearts and minds that got America into trouble. This was apparent to me from the start.
Revenge killing in Afghanistan wasn't the problem. It was the foolish idea of combining that with nation building and winning hearts and minds that got America into trouble. This was apparent to me from the start.
I absolutely agree with that. Even once we made the mistake of invading Iraq, we defeated their army and took their capital in a very few weeks. Granted it took longer to capture Saddam. Once we bagged him we should have had the sense to get out. Thinking that a bunch of ME Islamists with a 13th century culture can be brought into the 21st century and make a peaceful, democratic system function was incredibly naive.
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. You summed it up accurately.