DID 41 OPPOSE THE WAR?

Via Political Wire, a new book on the Bushes says so:

A new book on the Bush political dynasty claims former President George H.W. Bush opposed last year's invasion of Iraq.
In "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty," Peter and Rochelle Schweizer cite as evidence a summer 2002 interview in which the older Bush's sister said her brother had expressed his "anguish" about the administration's preparations for war.

"But do they have an exit strategy?" the former President is quoted as worrying.

"Although he never went public with them," the authors assert, "the President's own father shared many of [the] concerns" of Brent Scowcroft, his national security adviser and a leading war opponent.

This was something a lot of us had suspected, when Scowcroft, Eagleberger and others voiced their concerns. 41's people are denying the accounts from the book:

Top Bush aide Jean Becker denied the allegations yesterday.

"From the very first day, President Bush 41 unequivocally supported the President on the war in Iraq," she said. "He had absolutely no reservations of any kind."

Though the article doesn't make it clear, Becker is a Bush 41 aide, not 43.

Of course, Becker's comment is a non-denial denial. Becker says Poppy had no reservations on having "supported the President", i.e. his son.

The article continues:

The book pries open the door slightly on one of the Bush clan's most closely held secrets: the former President's private qualms about portions of his son's Iraq policy.

"He agrees with the policy goals but not with all of the execution," a close friend told the Daily News.

The older Bush has maintained strict public silence about possible differences, and only last week hammered "elites and intellectuals on the campaign trail" for criticizing the war.

Yet close friends and associates said the older Bush, while fiercely proud and protective of his son, nevertheless harbors concerns about the war and its aftermath.

These sources told The News that aside from his "exit-strategy" fears of a prolonged, bloody conflict, the ex-President is troubled that the war fractured the international coalition he painstakingly assembled to expel deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991.

The author of the book is a member of the conservative Hoover Institute, by the way.