Helen Thomas is citing Mickey Herskowitz, who has talked a lot to President Bush for a biography project with this reason for the illegal war in Iraq:
He said Bush's circle of advisers had a fixation on the political capital that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher collected from the Falklands war in 1982.
"They were just absolutely blown away, just enthralled by the scenes of the troops coming back, of the boats, people throwing flowers at (Thatcher) and her getting those standing ovations in Parliament in making these magnificent speeches."
Herskowitz, who also was the authorized biographer of the president's grandfather, Prescott Bush, said George W. Bush's beliefs about Iraq were based in part on the concept: "Start a small war, pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade." If successful, you'll be hero at home.
The bogus reason of Iraqi WMD did not make sense even if you believed they existed. The United States afraid of the great Iraqi military WMD power? I never bought that.
But waging a war to gain a few points in the reelection campaign is a perfectly reasonable explanation of events. Not, maybe, morally acceptable to most people. But it does make sense.
And, judging by what most people assume to be the "results" of the election in the paperless blackbox Diebold Democracy, the strategy actually seems to have paid off.
If that is correct, then the bright side is that President Bush probably won't start any more illegal wars of aggression for no particular reason in the next four years. He can't run in 2008, so he doesn't need to beat up some other weak country to boost his campaign any more.
And while I'm at it, congratulations to the Republicans for winning the election. While it would have been nice to see American voters reject illegal aggressive war, there is a bright side to having Bush elected as well. Kerry might have actually received some military support for the American occupation of Iraq. In contrast, leaving Bush in charge will accelerate withdrawing of European countries from the Iraq mess.