Two years before the 9/11 attacks on America, George W. Bush told a Houston journalist if elected president, "I’m going to invade Iraq."
In a new book, "Media In Crisis"(Doukathsan), Baker quotes Houston Chronicle reporter Mickey Herskowitz (then working with Bush on his book "A Charge To Keep”) as telling him: "He (Bush) said he wanted to do it (invade Iraq), and the reason he wanted to do it is he had been led to understand that you could not really have a successful presidency unless you were seen as commander-in-chief, unless you were seen as waging a war."
Bush told Herskowitz that his father (President George H.W. Bush) knew that from Panama and (President Ronald)Reagan knew that from Grenada and…(UK Prime Minister)Maggie Thatcher knew this from the Falklands."
According to Baker, Bush told Herskowitz, "The ideal thing was a small war, and this is why Bush said nobody was going to be killed in Iraq because he thought it would be small war."