Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 17, 1991 TAG: 9102170113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK NELSON LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The president has personalized the conflict in his own mind, say sources who have counseled with him, because he is convinced that it springs from "the evil work" of one man - Saddam.
Given that mind-set, some Bush advisers expect the president to settle for nothing less than Saddam's removal from power and the destruction of most of Baghdad's war-making capability - not just the liberation of Kuwait.
"He's not ready for this war to be over quite yet because there's still too much of Saddam's military machine left," said one senior government official.
Reflecting that unwavering determination to rain punishment on Saddam and his forces, the president has developed a stock reply to all proposals from within the administration for a pause in the bombing: "Let's just stick to the plan," he says.
In private, according to sources close to him, Bush has grown increasingly quiet and reflective. And while he may rail about Saddam and express frustration at the dictator's behavior, Bush is described as remarkably calm in approaching the most momentous decisions he has faced since entering the White House.
"The president is much quieter than any time that I've seen him over the past 10 years," said one source. "He's calm, too, but he's also angry. You can see the anger in his eyes."
"It's on the president's mind all the time," says another longtime Bush associate, who says the war has preoccupied Bush like nothing else since he took office a little over two years ago. "He's totally focused and doesn't want to discuss anything but the war. Talking about the ground war, he'll say, `We're not there yet, but we're getting there.'
"In the past when making decisions on other things he would say, `Let's move slowly and look at all the options.' But not on the war. He's decisive and knows where he's going," the associate said.
The president, say some advisers, has been more relaxed since the war started than he was in the weeks leading up to the commencement of hostilities on Jan. 16. "He was more intense in that period and his face was puffy and he looked tired," a long-time adviser said. "But now it's a moral as well as strategic mission and he's much more relaxed.
"There will be no deviation whatsoever in terms of what we do in finishing this job," the source said. "He's not going to be deterred, I don't care what kind of civilian casualties may occur, he feels we're on the right course."
The president, according to one of his advisers, believes that regardless of any concessions Saddam might offer, "we've got to destroy his capability to wage war now because if we don't do that now, we'll have to go to war again in the future."
Bush is described as being dismayed and incensed at what he considers Saddam's cold-blooded disregard for his own people, for the military reality facing him and for the truth.
"He just can't accept it that Saddam doesn't understand what all the United States can do to him," a source said. "He can't understand how Saddam can put civilians - women and children - in harm's way. And he can't understand Saddam's lying. He says, `The guy lied to his own Arab colleagues. Why should I ever believe him? He's a lying SOB.' "
Bush, who has never departed from the hard-line course against Saddam that he set when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, was described by associates as "comfortable" with the idea of launching a full-scale ground war, despite the potentially heavy American casualties that could result.
A final decision to begin the ground phase of the conflict may come within days.
"Chemical weapons are the president's biggest worry right now," said one source, "because that's the only option that Saddam has left."
Describing the chief executive's feelings Friday when Saddam seemed to express willingness to withdraw from Kuwait, an associate said Bush was "one angry Texan" when it developed that Saddam's offer was accompanied by a long list of unacceptable conditions.
Upon first hearing of the Iraqi proposal Friday morning, Bush told aides that if indeed Saddam was proposing to comply with United Nations demands and withdraw his forces from Kuwait unconditionally - as initial news reports suggested - "then, of course, we have to accept it as a peace proposal."
"But I doubt it," Bush was quoted as adding.
His doubts were confirmed a short time later by Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, who sources said translated the Arab document into English for the president and his top aides over the telephone.
Later, in public, Bush dismissed the Iraqi formulation as a cruel hoax.
Bush's insistence that an unconditional Iraqi withdrawal must precede any peace talks is explicitly aimed at humiliating Saddam, sources said.
Leaving no wiggle room whatsoever for Saddam, Bush even urged the Iraqi people Friday to overthrow their leader. "There's another way for the bloodshed to stop," he declared, "and that is for the Iraqi military, the Iraqi people, to take matters into their own hands, to force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside."
Physically and emotionally, Bush's advisers say, the president has remained pretty much on an even keel throughout the 6-month-old Persian Gulf crisis and has not let its demands keep him from his regular routine of exercising.
The president has slept well during the crisis, according to his own comments at a press conference, and he has seldom shown much emotion over the momentous decisions he must make as commander in chief.
But at least twice his eyes have welled up with tears - when hearing descriptions of Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait and when listening to a moving song at a recent White House dinner for the nation's governors.
After listening to Gary Morris sing "Bring Him Home," a song he performed in "Les Miserables" about a father praying for his son to be brought home from combat, the president stood up with tears in his eyes, thanked Morris, and declared, "We will bring them home."
by CNB