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Aides Say Bush Girds for War in Solitude, but Not in Doubt
The New York Times ^ | 03/09/03 | ELISABETH BUMILLER

Posted on 03/08/2003 1:24:48 PM PST by Pokey78

WASHINGTON, March 8 — It was another night at a White House nearly at war. The Atlantic alliance was splintering, 250,000 American troops were within striking distance of Iraq and the pope had sent an envoy pleading for peace.

Upstairs the first lady was entertaining a group of friends for dinner; downstairs a crowd of reporters was assembled. President Bush, his face already made up for his first prime-time news conference in 18 months, turned to his chief of staff.

"He said, `Why don't you just leave me alone for a little bit?' " the chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., said in an interview on Friday. Mr. Card, taken aback, quickly left, he said, and the president quietly closed the door of his study.

For the next 10 minutes, the president of the United States, a man under inconceivable pressures, sat in solitude, undisturbed.

Moments later, Mr. Bush strode up to his lectern in the bright television glare, presenting himself in a nearly hourlong news conference on Thursday as a leader impervious to doubt.

At a time when the world is arguing about what the United States should do in Iraq, while even his own advisers are still debating options, Mr. Bush's aides say that he has come to realize that making the decision to go to war is the loneliest moment that presidents face.

Whether war is a last resort that has been thrust upon him, as he sometimes says, or whether it is his choice to wage it, no one can fill the space that he alone occupies — not his closest aides, not the great array of expert advisers, not his wife or even his father, who made a similar decision when he was president.

Presidents handle pressure differently — Richard M. Nixon retreated, Bill Clinton got on the phone in the middle of the night — but historians say that almost all display certitude in public and more uncertainty in private. Friends and advisers of Mr. Bush insist that this president, in contrast, is much the same in private as he is in public.

While Iraq weighs on him heavily, they say, a president who sees the world as a biblical struggle of good versus evil has never expressed any misgivings, or personal vulnerabilities, about going to war against Saddam Hussein.

"He's very determined, I would say," said Cardinal Pio Laghi, a Vatican peace emissary and longtime Bush family friend who last week hand-delivered a letter to Mr. Bush from Pope John Paul II asking the president to avoid an invasion of Iraq. "He was very friendly, he was very nice, he was very appreciative, but he didn't give me the idea that he was shaky."

The president's appearance of calm in the face of enormous international opposition to war in Iraq, aides say, is driven by two forces: Mr. Bush's unequivocal belief that Mr. Hussein is a grave threat to the United States, and his constant worry that there will be another Sept. 11 on his watch.

"He's worried about another attack every morning that he walks into the Oval Office," Mr. Card said. Mr. Bush's concern is in large part fueled by the first thing he reads every day, the "threat assessment," a compilation of what United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies pick up about potential terrorist activity. Some of it is reliable, much of it is not, but aides call it frightening. For the president it is a powerful motivating force.

"My job is to protect America, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," Mr. Bush said repeatedly at his news conference on Thursday. "People can ascribe all kinds of intentions. I swore to protect and defend the Constitution. That's what I swore to do. I put my hand on the Bible and took that oath."

Mr. Bush is handling the pressures on him, aides say, by staying faithful to his orderly and reassuring White House life: exercise, a careful diet, prayer, no alcohol, a dutiful reading of his nighttime briefing books, early bedtimes, time with his wife. Mr. Bush relaxes, aides say, by watching ESPN over lunch on a tray brought up to his private dining room from the White House mess, or by poring over the sports pages. He still schedules an hour each day for exercise, typically now in the midafternoons.

Two weekends ago at Camp David, the president watched "Antwone Fisher," about an African-American orphan trying to put his life right after growing up in an abusive foster home. Mr. Bush, who frequently gets too restless to sit through an entire movie, watched the entire film.

People who have met with Mr. Bush have been struck by his tranquillity. "You would never have known that he was sitting on a powder keg," said Don Hewitt, the executive producer of "60 Minutes," who recently spent 15 minutes with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office. "He was amazingly calm and wanted to talk about Harry Truman and not Saddam Hussein."

Aides say that Mr. Bush's Christian faith, which led him to stop drinking in 1986, is a big factor. "My faith sustains me, because I pray daily," Mr. Bush said at his news conference on Thursday night, speaking plainly about a topic he usually avoids in public. "I pray for guidance and wisdom and strength."

In the United States, he said, "there are thousands of people who pray for me that I'll never see and be able to thank," and he added, "But it's a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer."

One of the biggest changes in Mr. Bush's life in the last two weeks is a schedule suddenly free of domestic trips and many of the ceremonial duties of the office.

In the build-up to war, the president's aides have cleared blocks of his daily calendar to give him more time to think — or, more realistically, to get on the phone, as he did this week, to lobby nearly all of his 14 fellow heads of state in the United Nations Security Council, where there will soon be a showdown vote on a resolution that would effectively authorize an attack on Iraq.

The longest and most intense of those talks were with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, the president's closest ally, who faces more war opposition and risks to his political future than Mr. Bush. The two strategize on the latest vote count — the resolution needs 9 of 15 votes to pass, with no vetoes. So far the United States has only 4, including its own. There were at least two talks this week between Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush, aides said, lasting some 20 minutes each.

Mr. Bush also spoke this week with his father, who called to congratulate his son on his presentation at the news conference, aides said. The two men, who have both taken on Mr. Hussein, continue to speak all the time, aides say. Aides say they are almost never in the room during the phone calls.

In the march toward war, there has also been an occasional moment of humor. "While he was giving the State of the Union, he winked at me," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. "He sort of winked, a couple of times. And I winked back at him."

"Whether you agree with him or not," Mr. Schumer said, "one of Bush's strengths is that he goes with his instincts. And at a time like this, when the winds are swirling around in all different directions, a president is well served who has his own internal gyroscope."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 03/08/2003 1:24:48 PM PST by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
bump
2 posted on 03/08/2003 1:34:49 PM PST by groanup
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To: Pokey78
How 'bout that. Out of the NYT for pitty sakes. Is it okay to put that on here now?
3 posted on 03/08/2003 1:36:40 PM PST by Check6
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To: Pokey78; Faith; rintense
In the United States, he said, "there are thousands of people who pray for me that I'll never see and be able to thank," and he added, "But it's a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer."
4 posted on 03/08/2003 1:38:16 PM PST by Dog (Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. ~John Wayne)
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To: Pokey78
Before I read the article, I just noticed it's from the NYSLIMES..hopefully I won't need a BARF BAG! Wish me luck!
5 posted on 03/08/2003 1:38:22 PM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: groanup
Bump
6 posted on 03/08/2003 1:39:55 PM PST by Sacajaweau (Hillary: Constitutional Scholar! NOT)
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To: Dog; Faith
And people mock this man.
7 posted on 03/08/2003 1:43:51 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: Pokey78
In the United States, he said, "there are thousands of people who pray for me that I'll never see and be able to thank," and he added, "But it's a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer."

I would hope it would be in the millions, but we'll take any and all prayers. Thank God this man is our President.

8 posted on 03/08/2003 1:47:16 PM PST by TADSLOS (Sua Sponte)
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To: Pokey78
truly amazing to have come from the nyt. probably on page 1 tomorrow, my guess.
9 posted on 03/08/2003 1:49:58 PM PST by Paul_B
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To: Pokey78
The article has its good points. But you knew that an article about Bush's "lack of doubt" in the NYTimes was going to paint Bush as a fanatic. There wouldn't be many more lines before we heard that Bush sees the world as a "biblical struggle of good and evil". See, Bush's certainty is an implication of the fact that Bush is a religious fanatic, of course, who wouldn't know a reasonable doubt if it hopped out of his King James Bible and bit him, the Times is telling us.
10 posted on 03/08/2003 1:50:51 PM PST by Timm
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To: TADSLOS
You are so right. Thank God this man in President.
11 posted on 03/08/2003 1:52:43 PM PST by dalebert
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To: TADSLOS
I suspect it's really in the millions, too, but President Bush is humble before God and men.

I know that when I heard him say that, it caused me to re-dedicate myself to consistent daily prayer for him.

12 posted on 03/08/2003 1:53:29 PM PST by savedbygrace
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To: Pokey78
How about that, a decent NY Times article.
13 posted on 03/08/2003 1:56:25 PM PST by rwfromkansas (Soli Deo Gloria!)
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To: Timm
The Times article focuses on Bush's calm and meditation on his decisions, combined with his firm faith. I do not get the sense that this is intended to scare folks into thinking he is some religious fanatic; indeed, it seems intended to do the opposite or it would not focus on the amount of time he thinks about these matters.
14 posted on 03/08/2003 1:58:12 PM PST by rwfromkansas (Soli Deo Gloria!)
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To: rintense; ohioWfan; Brad's Gramma; homeschool mama; patriciaruth; MJY1288; Howlin; kayak; ...
People who have met with Mr. Bush have been struck by his tranquillity.

Some of us were drawn to him because of this tranquility, recognizing that his faith makes him strong. We are so blessed to have a moral man of convictions guiding the helm.

15 posted on 03/08/2003 2:00:17 PM PST by McLynnan
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To: savedbygrace
Me, too! I am so thankful that we have such a man as our president!

And I loved this remark by Schumer, too! ' "Whether you agree with him or not," Mr. Schumer said, "one of Bush's strengths is that he goes with his instincts. And at a time like this, when the winds are swirling around in all different directions, a president is well served who has his own internal gyroscope." '

16 posted on 03/08/2003 2:03:38 PM PST by Theresawithanh (A conservative from the PRC (People's Republic of California))
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To: Pokey78
The Atlantic alliance was splintering

Well, so it is. At the instigation of Monsieur Chirac. And when the splinters fall to the ground, France will be isolated, not America.

17 posted on 03/08/2003 2:06:34 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Howlin
Why do I feel deep in my heart the pain this man is going through?? I continue to pray for him day and night. What drives me to my knees in contiual prayer, is the fact that W is my brother in Christ and needs us more than ever to stand with him in prayer!! God showed me this morning as I was seeking some comfort, that W is going to reap the SPOILS of the enemies!! We have to remember this is SPIRITUAL warfare and the Lord reminded me that King David was also seen throughtout the land as a fugitive. He had constantly been on the run, faced with crisis after crisis, on the brink of losing everything. BUT now these spoils-heads of livestock and wagon loads of gifts-proved David was a victorious warrior. He came out of his battles rich with resources. And those resources he gained were meant to bring blessings to others. God's hand was MIGHTILY upon David, because david was a man of prayer and was submissive to God. I really believe with all my heart that God is going to turn this war into an AWESOME blessing to those who are in bondage!! And our beloved brother in Christ, Mr. bush, will be regarded as one of the GREATEST PRESIDENTS in history!! With the authority God has appointed us with, I rebuke what Helen Thomas(little demon) said about W "That he was the worst president ever." She has very few years of life left and has decided to spew her viciousness against a child of Christ, she will be judged by her words! H. Thomas has the spirit of Jezebel in her soul and we all know what happened to her in the end!!
18 posted on 03/08/2003 2:08:27 PM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: McLynnan
Thanks for the ping. Thank GOd for the constitution and our President.
19 posted on 03/08/2003 2:09:01 PM PST by hoosiermama (Prayers for all)
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To: Pokey78
I was listening to the BBC today and heard that absolute IDJIT professor from U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign who is pushing for Pres. Bush's impeachment. The flavor of the week THIS week is Bush's "Illegal and Aggressive War". By the way, can anyone tell me of any war that is NOT aggressive? What a maroon! Of course after his anti-war diatribe he began pulling out all the old chestnuts like "He's an illegitimate President", he was 'chosen' by the 5 conservatives on the Supreme Court, he's not the people's choice. He's claiming that the congressfolks who voted last fall for what amounted to acquiesence to Bush in waging war on Iraq, didn't really mean that they would support a war, but that they would support inspections.

Anyway, this guy is going to try to get some Democrats to try to get the impeachment ball rolling. Frankly, I wish they would. It would only diminish them FURTHER in the eyes of the majority of Americans!

20 posted on 03/08/2003 2:13:07 PM PST by SuziQ
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