Twelfth in blog series chronicling the administration push to Iraq. August, 2001: The news media continue to be consumed with the Chandra Levy-Gary Condit scandal. Enron’s difficulties periodically surface. Bush spends much of the month of August at his recently purchased ranch in Crawford, Texas. While on vacation, the president, along with unnamed administration sources, keeps up the rhetorical attacks on Iraq.

 

 

Aug. 1, 2001 – Administration sources disclose to news outlets that Bush is said to be contemplating aggressive action against Iraq. Possibilities are said to include air strikes, in ‘retaliation’ for Saddam’s almost having shot down a U.S. military plane in Iraqi air space.

 

Aug. 3, 2001 – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tells reporters that Saddam has rebuilt Iraq’s air defenses. According to the SecDef, Iraq has rebuilt its air defenses since the mid-February strikes on Iraq by U.S. and British fighters. Few specifics are shared on how this remarkable restoration took place in the given time frame.


 

Aug. 8, 2001 – Saddam claims that the Iraqis have hit a U.S. warplane patrolling Iraqi airspace. British and U.S. sources deny the claim.

 

Same day – Bush talks with the press from a visit in Waco, Texas:

 

“THE PRESIDENT:  I've got a lot of national security concerns that we're working on -- Iraq; Macedonia, very worrisome right now.  Kind of a blowup last night and yesterday it looked like we had a peaceful resolution; it's now in doubt.  Urge all -- we're urging all the parties to get back to the table and renounce the violence.  The Secretary of Defense and I are working on some projects.  There will be some announcements.”

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010808-4.html

 

Aug. 10, 2001 -- The U.S. and Britain conduct the largest airstrikes on Iraq in almost six months. According to the official Iraqi News Agency, one person is killed and 11 are wounded. AP: “About 20 U.S. and British attack planes plus about 30 support aircraft took part in the strikes, said Army Lt. Col. Steve Campbell at the Pentagon in Washington. He said the planes struck a military communications center, a surface-to-air missile launching site and a long-range radar.”


There is little reaction in America to this downplayed news item, released late on a Friday. Quite possibly one main purpose of the airstrikes is to probe or test for domestic reaction.


 

 Aug. 17, 2001 – Bush names Vice President Cheney’s son-in-law, Philip J. Perry, as acting Associate Attorney General. Perry, married to Cheney’s daughter Elizabeth, will oversee antitrust, civil rights, and the Environmental and Natural Resources and tax divisions in the Department of Justice.

 

 

Aug. 21, 2001 – A Washington Post article by Thomas Ricks titled “Empire or Not? A Quiet Debate over U.S. Role” represents the White House and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld as pitted against the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the dispute centering on whether the United States should “embrace the role” of empire. Remarkably, the Post reports here that Bush and Rumsfeld are taking a more modest, ‘realist’ position in this dispute, in contrast to the open espousal of imperialism by Thomas Donnelly, deputy executive director of PNAC, supported by the Joint Chiefs.

 

 

Aug. 24, 2001 – Bush nominates Air Force General Richard B. Myers to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Myers, a strong advocate of the missile defense project favored by Bush, probably is also favored for not being Army.

 

 

Aug. 28, 2001 – The U.S. loses an unmanned drone over southern Iraq, near Basra. The Iraqis claim to have shot down the $3.2 million unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, an Air Force Predator. The administration makes little to no fuss over the loss of the drone.