another person's mind. One can only glean information by reading about what someone has said or by listening to the other person speak. In the case of President Bush, it is the opinion of this writer that there are underlying personal motives for action in the Middle East that are covered over by political statements and the involvement of the governmental agencies to justify the personal motives.
The war on Iraq arose within a complex of coincidences, the two most important of which seem to be the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and Bush taking the election after the recount in Florida. The combination of the eruption of terrorism and the unique personalities and ambitions of the Bush family brought into existence the war in Iraq. Therefore, it seems that the first stakeholder in this war is President Bush and the Bush family. Our current president seems driven to finish the business in Iraq that was not finished during the Gulf War, making Middle Eastern politics the business of the first family, and involving the American people to a very large degree. It seems no secret that President Bush favors "expanded executive authority, born out of crisis," and he has used this authority to expand the military-like state of existence within the US and within its presence in the Middle East (Kassop, 2003, p.510). Normally, diplomatic measures are extensively explored before a nation goes to war, but President Bush was very eager to go to war, even bypassing the lack of support from the United Nations. Bush's unilateral action created a "vast perceptual divide" between the U.S. and its allies (Strauss, 2002, p.17). The rest of the world still views the U.S. as an overwhelmingly dominant military power, the Bush and many of the American people view themselves as victims of an unjustified attack.
Looking back on these events of the past few years, one could say, using Allison's model, that President Bush had the goals ...