Why We Went To War

A reader reminds me that Bob Novak, the extremely well-connnected Beltway journalist, agreed with the very well-connected Republican apparatchik, Dinesh D'Souza, about the real motivation for war against Iraq among the top officials in the Bush administration. More impressively, he reported it before the invasion:

I can't imagine that anybody would say, We're going to war because there are 11 empty warheads, probably left over from 10 years ago. These warheads are not the nuclear weapons we've been warned about. They travel about 12 miles.

But this is being used as a pretext for a decision that's already been made at high levels of the U.S. government to change the government in Iraq. It has nothing to do with, boy, we're -- we are really worried about these little chemical warheads that's going to cause a holocaust in the Middle East.

Most disturbing thing is that Secretary of State Powell, a lot of people were relying on to keep some sanity, played the good soldier this week and said that at the end of the month, there would be more evidence. If there's more, if there's evidence, why not put it out now? ...

the last thing that the hawks inside the administration, and their friends outside the administration, want is a coup d'etat that would replace Saddam Hussein. They want a war as a manifestation of U.S. power in the world and as a sign that the United States is capable of changing the balance of power and the political map of the Middle East.

There's no question that the last thing they want is Saddam Hussein put on a plane and taken away ...

Talking to a senior official, and he said to me, he said, Well, if we don't hit in Iraq, where are we going to hit? And they - it's a desire that the United States, the superpower, is going to manifest its authority to the rest of the world.

Listen, I just feel that this potential - this war, I just trust it comes off easily. But I have trepidation that it won't be easy, and there's going to be a terrible consequences from it.

My italics. Which "senior official" told Novak that this was the real rationale? Cheney maybe? One more piece of evidence that the key players knew the WMD evidence was weak and pushed it anyway.