John Prados, 14 April 2003, TomPaine.com
"The Bush administration's adventure to Baghdad is causing a shift in the constellation of the heavens, the inner circle of Bush advisers who play a key role in what policies the United States pursues. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld consolidates more power into his own hands with each passing week, and signs point to a re-emergence of the authority that national security advisers once wielded in the bad old days of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. The portents to be read here are disturbing."
"As we move into the reconstruction period in post-war Iraq and toward a looming conflict with Syria, the seamless transfer of powers from the State Department to the Pentagon should alarm us. Are we to understand that the Bush administration now views U.S. 'diplomatic' efforts in the Middle East as a solely military effort?"
Affairs Of State - And Pentagon
John Prados is a senior analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, DC.