Inside The Mind Of George W. Bush

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As that statement suggests, Bush felt that Clinton's sensitivity to public opinion had weakened the U.S. in the eyes of its enemies. During the campaign he often talked about rebuilding American power and prestige by means that included deploying a missile-defense system that would require tearing up long-established treaties. Critics who accuse Bush of hypocrisy often cite his stating during a 2000 presidential debate that "if we're an arrogant nation, they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation, they'll respect us." But that was an answer designed, says a Bush adviser, to paint Al Gore as a know-it-all and send a signal to Israel that Bush was not going to meddle in its affairs. Condoleezza Rice did promise that the 82nd Airborne wouldn't be escorting children to school, but it was the small acts of international charity and the global police functions--as in Haiti and Somalia--to which Bush team members objected. Once nation building was a means to solve the greatest security threat of our time, they no longer saw it as a waste of U.S. manpower and prestige.

All of which is not to say that 9/11 had no effect on the President. He has said it did. But characteristically, it was more a magnifying impact than a transforming one, reinforcing his faith in action, strength and constancy. That has been a pattern, especially when it comes to events that affect him deeply. Far from lacking a learning curve, Bush may have an overlearning curve. You have only to look at what he drew from his father's defeat to see the tendency. If George H.W. Bush got in trouble for raising taxes, W. would cut them no matter what. Far from ignoring the party base, he has courted it to the point that polls show he's having a hard time winning over swing voters. He didn't hire a callow kid as his Vice President but instead a commanding political veteran whose power is as controversial as his policies. The father's Gulf War stopped at the Kuwait border; the son's drove right to Baghdad. And if the father had a problem with the vision thing, too sparse and stingy for an optimistic age, Bush is all vision during these hard times: bring world peace, spread democracy, redirect history. "We are changing the world," he often says. He tells TIME, "We'll look back, and we'll say, 'You know, thank God the United States held true to its belief.'"

It was natural, then, when it came to Iraq, for Bush to conclude that the risks of underreacting were greater than the risks of overreacting. Bush's world view was so designed around strength that he could hardly have pulled back on Iraq once he became convinced that Saddam posed a short-term threat and that spreading democracy in the Arab world was a long-term necessity. Unlike in domestic affairs, where Bush could cut a deal at the end, there was no way to launch half an invasion. Devoted to action and surrounded by advisers who admired tough calls, Bush created a system that was almost designed for confrontation.