9/26/2001

“After the National Security Council meeting that morning [September 26, 2001], [President] Bush asked [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld to stay behind. The two talked alone in the Oval Office. ‘I want you to develop a plan to invade Iraq,’ Bush said. ‘Do it outside the normal channels. Do it creatively so we don’t have to take so much over.’ …The meeting, which would remain secret until Rumsfeld revealed it in his memoir in 2011, was the first time Bush set in motion the action that would ultimately shape his presidency.”

 – Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 160