George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

two days, Bush was on his way to Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, where his handlers
hoped that the dervish would pull himself together.
During August, Bush pursued a hyperactive round of sports activities in Kennebunkport,
while cartoonists compared the Middle East to the sandtraps that Bush so often landed in
during his frenetic daily round of golf. On August 16, King Hussein of Jordan, who was
fighting to save his nation from being dismembered by the Israelis under the cover of the
crisis, came to visit Bush, who welcomed him with thinly veiled hatred. At this time Bush
was already talking about mobilizing the reserves. Saddam Hussein's situation during
these weeks can be compared with Noriega's on the eve of the US invasion of Panama.
The US was as yet very weak on the ground, and a preventive offensive thrust by the
Iraqis into Saudi Arabia towards Dahran would have caused an indescribable chaos in the
US logistics. But Saddam, like Noriega, still believed that he would not be invaded; the
Iraqi government gave more credit to its secret assurances than to the military force that
was slowly being assembled on its southern border. Saddam therefore took no preemptive
military actions to interfere with the methodical marshalling of the force that was
later to devastate his country. The key to the US buildup was the logistical infrastructure
of NATO in Europe; without this the buildup would have lasted until the summer of 1991
and beyond.
It was during these August days that Scowcroft coined the slogan of Bush's Gulf war. On
August 23, Scowcroft told reporters, "We believe we are creating the beginning of a new
world order out of the collapse of US-Soviet antagonisms." [fn 47]
Bush was now conducting a systematic "mind war" campaign to coerce the American
people into accepting the war he had already chosen. On August 20, Bush introduced a
new rhetorical note, now calling the American citizens detained in Iraq "hostages." Under
international law, the imminent threat of acts of war against a country entitles that
country to intern enemy aliens as a matter of self-defense; this had been the rule in earlier
wars. Henceforth, Bush would attempt to turn the hostage issue on and off according to
his propaganda needs, until Iraq freed all the Americans in early December.
On August 27, Bush opined that "Saddam Hussein has been so resistant to complying
with international law that I don't yet see fruitful negotiations." [fn 48] Statements like
these were made to cloak the fact that Bush was adamantly refusing to negotiate with
Iraq, and preventing other nations from doing so. Bush's diplomatic posture was in effect
an ultimatum to Iraq to get out of Kuwait, with the Iraqi departure to come before any
discussions. Bush called this a refusal to reward aggression; it was in fact a refusal to
negotiate in good faith, and made clear that Bush wanted war. His problem was that the
US military buildup was taking longer than expected, with ship convoys forced to turn
back in the Atlantic because freighters broke down and were left dead in the water. Bush
strove to fill the time with new demagogic propaganda gambits.
Bush returned to Washington at the end of August to address members of Congress. In
the public part of this meeting, Bush reiterated that his goal was to "persuade Iraq to
withdraw." There followed an executive session behind closed doors. The next day Bush