Josh Marshall explains why this Russ Baker news article is credible, and like the headline, focuses on George W. Bush's desire to invade Iraq long before September 11, 2001, or even before he was his party's nominee for president.

Even so, I think Josh and the headline writer missed the most fear-inspiring part of the story, based on the credible recollections of Mickey Herskowitz, the first ghost-writer of Bush's autobiography and a long-time Bush family confidant:

According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."

Bush's circle of pre-election advisers had a fixation on the political capital that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher collected from the Falklands War. Said Herskowitz: "They were just absolutely blown away, just enthralled by the scenes of the troops coming back, of the boats, people throwing flowers at [Thatcher] and her getting these standing ovations in Parliament and making these magnificent speeches."

Republicans, Herskowitz said, felt that Jimmy Carter's political downfall could be attributed largely to his failure to wage a war. He noted that President Reagan and President Bush's father himself had (besides the narrowly-focused Gulf War I) successfully waged limited wars against tiny opponents - Grenada and Panama - and gained politically. But there were successful small wars, and then there were quagmires, and apparently George H.W. Bush and his son did not see eye to eye.

There's other stuff in there about Bush admitting that he skipped out on Alabama National Guard duty, and that he never flew a plane after 1972, and that his businesses were "floundering" (Bush's word), all angrily scrubbed by the campaign even though their candidate was the source. But the key is here:

The Bush team planned from the very beginning to invade some pipsqueak country, under whatever pretense necessary, to get the political capital necessary to pass a radical legislative agenda.

George W. Bush liked picking Iraq because Saddam Hussein had tried to assassinate his father. The Mayberry Machiavellis liked it because it could be cast as a threat to the US and was still easy enough to defeat, and the Neocons loved it because they had convinced themselves that Democracy was waiting to burst out of the Middle East like Britney Spears out of an "A" cup. But that doesn't change what Herskowitz is saying - the goal was first and foremost to have a war. Where we had that war was of secondary importance.

This can't have been that huge a secret if Bush's "circle of advisers" were all for it. Invading some country at random - sacrificing American lives - to get tax cuts and drilling through ANWR through Congress. It's like a bad 60s thriller. Sweet Jesus, how can any member of Congress who never moved to impeach this guy sleep at night - or ever again?

I am genuinely scared right now.