Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

On his Crawford, TX, ranch, Bush reads Theodore Rex, and finds Roosevelt's "big stick" diplomacy inspiring. On December 28, Bush's top-secret reports include an item resembling al-Qaeda messages just before 9/11. Franks and Renuart are present and the principals linked by video feeds. Franks summarizes success in Afghanistan and then turns to Iraq, outlining his and Rumsfeld's latest thinking on staging a preemptive strike by 400,000 troops requiring a six-month lead. Franks combines seven "lines of operations" with nine "slices" of Iraqi vulnerability to create an action matrix, and uses the "starburst" graphics Bush likes to show useable intersections. The solution is deemed "Robust," if Iraq's four neighbors, the Gulf States, and the British cooperate. It is considered "Reduced," if only the U.K. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman sign on. It's dubbed "Unilateral," if the U.S. fights alone. Franks needs millions to...