Bush regime change

Bush regime change has apparently been underway since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Bush administration's focus has not on the perpetrators of the attacks, al Qaeda, but rather on regime change by ousting Saddam Hussein from leadership and U.S.-led preemptive war in Iraq. Reuters Security Correspondent Caroline Drees, in her April 8, 2004, article "U.S. terrorism policy spawns steady staff exodus", writes that "Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has faced a steady exodus of counterterrorism officials, many disappointed by a preoccupation with Iraq they said undermined the U.S. fight against terrorism." 

Drees reports that some former counterterrorism officials, "at least half a dozen have left the White House Office for Combatting Terrorism or related agencies in frustration in the 2 1/2 years since the attacks. ... Some also left because they felt President Bush had sidelined his counterterrorism experts and paid almost exclusive heed to the vice president, the defense secretary and other Cabinet members in planning the 'war on terror'." 

Among those who have left are:


 * Richard A. Clarke, "Bush's former counterterrorism czar ... who told the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that the administration ignored the al Qaeda threat beforehand and was fixated on Iraq afterward."


 * Roger Cressey, "who served under Clarke in the White House counterterrorism office ... left the office in November 2001, when he became chief of staff of the White House's cybersecurity office until September 2002."


 * Flynt Leverett, "who served on the White House National Security Council for about a year until March 2003 and is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank."


 * Rand Beers, "a former No. 2 in the office who quit last year over the administration's handling of the war on terrorism."

Reference:
 * Bush regime
 * regime change