George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

iefing sessions to prepare the domestic policy sections of the State of the Union
address, Bush was described as "frankly, bored;" "you could almost see his mind
wandering to the Gulf."
There are indications that after a week to ten days of bombing, Bush was surprised and
disappointed that all Iraqi resistance had not already collapsed. This is what some of his
advisors were rumored in Washington to have promised him.
The 1991 State of the Union was supposed to be the apotheosis of Bush as a warrior
emperor. One of his themes was the "next American century," borrowed from Stimson
and Luce. The apotheosis was somewhat dimmed by the economic difficulties the Gulf
was had done nothing to assuage. Bush portrayed these problems as a mere ripple in "the
largest peacetime economic expansion in history." "We will soon get this recession
behind us," Bush promised. He conjured up "the long-held promise of a new world order-
- where brutality will go unrewarded, and aggression will meet collective resistance." He
urged this country to take up "the burden of leadership." For many, the reference was
clear:
Take up the White Man's burden-- Ye dare not stoop to less Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness,
had written Rudyard Kipling in 1899 as part of a British campaign to convince the United
States to set up a colonial administration in the Phillipines. (As the Omaha World Herald
had noted in that far-off time, "In other words, Mr. Kipling would have Uncle Sam take
up John Bull's business." The racist jingo doggerel of imperialism caught Bush's mood
precisely.
After the war, it would be shown that the US bombers had concentrated their fire on the
civilian infrastructure of Iraq, choosing targets of no immediate military relevance. The
bombing was concentrated on systems providing potable water to cities, electrical
generating facilities, bridges, highways, and other transportation infrastructure. This was
cynically called the "bomb now, die later" strategy, since the goal of the bombing was to
destroy civilian infrastructure in order to lower the relative potential population density of
the country below the level of the Iraqi population, thus producing an astronomical rise in
infant mortality, plagues, and pestilence. It was, in short, a population war. It was a
cowardly, despicable way to fight.
Bush had ordered all this, but he lied compulsively about it. After 3 weeks of bombing,
he told a press conference that his bombers were going to "unprecedented lengths to
avoid damage to civlians and holy places. We do not seek Iraq's destruction, nor do we
seek to punish the Iraqi people for the decisions and policies of their leaders. In addition,
we are doing everything possible and with great success to minimize collateral
damage...." [fn 85] The air war was designed to gut the economic infrastructure of Iraq;
an additional objective was to kill at least 100,000 members of the Iraqi armed forces.
This could only be accomplished by storming the Iraqi positions of the ground, and this is
what Bush was determined to do. Published accounts suggested that the original