Thomas Hartman at Common Dreams reminds us that:
“as George W. Bush noted to his biographer Mickey Herskowitz in 1999, war gives a president political capital. Bush even thought he’d get enough political capital from invading Iraq (this was before he was elected, keep in mind) that he could use it to privatize Social Security.
“One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief,” Herskowitz told reporter Russ Baker that Bush told him.
“My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it,” Bush said, adding, “If I have a chance to invade…. if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.'”