Posted on 03/21/2003 4:39:43 AM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON (AP) - Uttering a simple "God bless the troops," President Bush gave the final OK for war in Iraq after his military commanders assured him, one-by-one, that they were ready to strike.
The president's decision to wage war was made around 8 a.m. Wednesday, 12 hours before the deadline Bush had given Saddam Hussein to either flee Iraq or be overthrown, according to a White House briefing Thursday on the run-up to war.
"For the peace of the world and the benefit and freedom of the Iraqi people, I am hereby giving the order to execute Operation Iraqi Freedom," Bush told a Situation Room meeting of his war Cabinet, with military commanders sitting in by means of videoconference links from around the Persian Gulf.
What Bush signed off on was the broad strategy and mission for a war in Iraq that the Pentagon had presented to him. He left it up to the military to decide the time and place for the attack to begin.
After ordering U.S. forces into battle, Bush planned to leave Washington on Friday and spend the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland.
Little did the participants of Wednesday's early morning huddle with the president know events would transpire mere hours later to hurry his decision along.
The White House portrayed Wednesday morning's war council - one of three Bush held that day - as one of the president's most important pre-hostilities meetings.
First, Bush asked each council member, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, for any final recommendations.
Afterward, Gen. Tommy Franks, who is leading the war, was linked by video from the United States' Prince Sultan air base outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and "introduced" to the president each of his eight field commanders - from Franks' Central Command, the Marines and special operations forces, plus the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
One by one, Bush asked each commander if he had everything he needed to win and was comfortable with the battle plan. Franks then offered a detailed troop assessment: "The rules of engagement are in place, the command and control is in place, and this force is ready to go," the general concluded.
Satisfied, Bush gave his verbal order: "God bless the troops."
"God bless America," Franks replied, with a salute. Bush saluted back, and left the Situation Room.
In midafternoon, though, U.S. intelligence indicated they'd gotten a rare fix on Saddam's location, prompting Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet to ask to see the president immediately. Along with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers, they rushed to the Oval Office for a meeting that convened about 3:30 p.m. and wouldn't break up until early evening.
Throughout, Rumsfeld and Myers kept leaving to call Franks and others from the Situation Room or Rice's office. Air Force stealth fighter-bomber jets were dispatched toward Iraq. Franks declared that the drop-dead time for a decision from the president was 7:15 p.m., the point at which cruise missiles would have to be launched from Navy ships and the fighters couldn't be turned back.
At one point, Rumsfeld read to Franks an address - already readied for Bush to deliver whenever war began - to make sure he was OK with its timing and content.
Finally, on the unanimous recommendation of Tenet, Franks, Rumsfeld and the rest of the war council, Bush approved surgical missile strikes aimed directly at senior Iraqi leadership, including Saddam. It was not the shock-and-awe start to war that many expected and that had been originally planned, officials said.
But it was a chance to destroy Saddam's regime, or at least throw it into disarray. "Let's go," Bush said at 7:12 p.m. - with just three minutes to spare.
Myers passed the word to Franks, Rice informed the British and, two-and-a-half hours later, bombs began falling on leadership targets as the night was growing late in Washington and dawn unfolded over Baghdad. A little over half-hour after that, Bush spent four minutes on television announcing the war's start to the world.
Just before speaking - and just after a private West Wing session with congressional leaders - Bush was informed that the planes had completed their mission, though they still were in enemy airspace. It was only when he was back in his residence for the night that he learned, from Rice, that the pilots were safe.
Similar assurance that the mission had found its target, however, would have to wait for another day.
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