High level pissing match

This was the week that Richard A. Clarke, the President's former anti-terrorism advisor (more specifically, the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism under both Clinton and Bush), came out with a new tell-all book entitled "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror". The main premise (paraphrasing others because I have not read it) is that President Bush and his staff were overly focused on Iraq from the time they took office, way before 9/11. He claims that his warnings (and those of many others) about the dangers of Al Qaeda were routinely downplayed because of the preoccupation with Iraq. He wasn't sure that the National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice, even knew who/what Al Qaeda was after taking office with the President. After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, he was essentially ordered to find the link between Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and Al Qaeda. Not finding one, he was told to look harder. It seems clear from the accounts of Clarke and of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that President Bush was focused on taking out Saddam even before taking office.

Not surprisingly, the personal attacks on Clarke from the administration and other Republican luminaries has been fast and furious. Clarke has definitely struck a nerve with this book. Whatever and whomever you believe, it does make for good entertainment.