President Bill Clinton met with President-elect George Bush at the White House on December 19, 2000. “Clinton told Bush that he had read his campaign statements carefully and his impression was that his two priorities were national missile defense and Iraq. Bush said this was correct. Clinton proposed a different set of priorities, which included Al Qaeda, Middle East diplomacy, North Korea, the nuclear competition in South Asia, and, only then, Iraq. Bush did not respond.”
– Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II, Page 15