Cheney and Powell Fought Bitterly Over Iraq

[The Jays]

Before the war with Iraq, Powell bluntly told Bush that if he sent U.S. troops there "you're going to be owning this place." Powell and his deputy and closest friend, Richard L. Armitage, used to refer to what they called "the Pottery Barn rule" on Iraq: "You break it, you own it," according to Woodward.

Despite Powell's admonitions to the president, "Plan of Attack" suggests it was Blair who may have played a more critical role in persuading Bush to seek a resolution from the United Nations. At a meeting with the president at Camp David in early September, Blair backed Bush on Iraq but said he needed to show he had tried U.N. diplomacy. Bush agreed, and later referred to the Camp David session with Blair as "the cojones meeting," using a colloquial Spanish term for courage.

Describing what the 41st president said to him about Iraq, the 43rd president told Woodward:

"It was less, 'Here's how you have to take care of the guy [Hussein],' and more, 'I've been through what you've been through and I know what's happening and therefore I love you' would be a more accurate way to describe it."