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Doubts and Debate Before Victory Over Taliban
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"Of course I'm concerned about the fact that things aren't moving!"
"Do you want to start looking at alternative strategies?"
"What alternative strategies would we be looking at?" he asked, as if the possibility had not crossed his mind. Bush's leadership style bordered on the hurried. He wanted action, solutions. Once on a course, he directed his energy at forging on, rarely looking back, scoffing at -- even ridiculing -- doubts and anything less than 100 percent commitment.
Careful reconsideration is a necessary part of any decision-making process. Rice felt it was her job to raise caution flags, even red lights if necessary, to urge the president to rethink.
Sometimes, the best decision is to overrule an earlier one. Now, events were their own caution flags. The static situation in Afghanistan might signal big problems. On top of that, the news media were raising questions about progress, strategy, timetables and expectations. Newsweek magazine had used the dreaded "Q" word -- quagmire -- evoking Vietnam.
"There always is the thought that you could use more Americans in this. You could Americanize this up front," Rice said. That could mean substantial ground forces -- several Army or Marine divisions. A division normally has about 15,000 to 20,000 troops.
Bush was aware that in these very rooms 35 to 40 years earlier, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had confronted similar decisions. Vietnam was the precedent.
"It hasn't been that long," the president said, referring to when the military action had begun.
"That's right."
"Do you think it's working?"
Rice did not really answer.
"We have a good plan," the president said. "You're confident in it?"
