The Bush Crowd came into office with a mindset locked in the past....

[kentuck]

It had been 8 years since most of them had spent any time in government. Condi Rice was considered an expert on the Soviet Union. Most of the others had worked with the first Bush Administration about 8-10 years ago and had completely missed the computer revolution of the 1990's. Some had come in from the Reagan years - after they saw the statute of limitations had run its course.

But most of them were living in the past. They believed what they believed from their previous experiences and they did not wish to adapt any of the policies of Bill Clinton. They thought they knew better. Then 9/11 opened most of their eyes. They knew they had to do something and they did not think there was enough "action" in Afghanistan to warrant an investigation. So they started setting up troops right off the bat in Kuwait. They were readying the forces for Saddam Hussein.

[Poiuyt]

1. Star Wars Defence

Clinton had said that he told bush upon leaving office that Al Quaida should be the number one prioity for the US. He said that bush said that he felt building a "Star Wars" missle defence system was more important.

As you said, Condi Rice was a Soviet expert, so it makes sense that she would want to keep building Cold War weapons.