WASHINGTON (AP) – A new book says President Bush´s advisers had grave doubts about the early course of the war in Afghanistan and suggests that the ultimate defeat of the Taliban was due largely to millions of dollars in hundred-dollar bills the CIA handed out to Afghan warlords to win their support.

"Bush at War," by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, draws on four hours of interviews with Bush and quotes 15,000 words from National Security Council and other White House meetings in reconstructing the internal debate that led to U.S. military action in Afghanistan and the decision to aggressively confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The book describes Secretary of State Colin Powell as frequently at odds with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and struggling to establish a relationship with Bush.

The book reports that Bush advisers had deep doubts about their strategy of bombing the Taliban while relying on ground forces from the Northern Alliance.

The CIA spent $70 million in direct cash outlays on the ground in Afghanistan, a figure that includes money for setting up field hospitals.

In the interview in August at the president´s ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush was reflective about his personal style and ambitions as president, the book says. "Sometimes, that´s the way I am – fiery," he said, describing his relationship with his aides, and adding: "I can be an impatient person."

In the interview, Bush also spoke about North Korea and its dictator Kim Jong Il.

With the administration contemplating a response to North Korea´s nuclear weapons program, Bush shouted and waved his finger in the air, saying, "I loathe Kim Jong Il."

Bush said during a February visit to the North Korean border that he had no intention of invading North Korea, but made it clear in the interview with Woodward he is not content with the status quo.

The book portrays Powell as being frustrated with having to pretend that there was a policy consensus within the war cabinet at Iraq and the Middle East. He called it being "in the icebox" during periods when the White House banned him from television.

Since his Watergate collaboration with Carl Bernstein, the 59-year-old Woodward has written a number of books and won his second Pulitzer Prize this year as part of a team of reporters recognized for covering the war on terrorism.

The Post published details from Woodward´s new book in its Saturday editions.

WP - A new book says President Bush´s advisers had grave doubts about the early course of the war in Afghanistan and suggests that the ultimate defeat of the Taliban was due largely to millions of dollars in hundred-dollar bills the CIA handed out to Afghan warlords to win their support.

"Bush at War," by Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, draws on four hours of interviews with Bush and quotes 15,000 words from National Security Council and other White House meetings in reconstructing the internal debate that led to U.S. military action in Afghanistan and the decision to aggressively confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In detailing tensions within Bush´s war cabinet, the book describes Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as frequently at odds with Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and struggling to establish a relationship with Bush. But it depicts Powell as determined to make his case that military action against Iraq without the help of allies could have disastrous consequences, a chance he finally got at a dinner with Bush last Aug. 5.

While the dinner has been previously reported, the book describes in detail the case Powell made -- reading from an outline on loose-leaf paper -- that the United States has to have international support against Iraq. "It´s nice to say we can do it unilaterally," Powell told the president bluntly, "except you can´t."

The dinner persuaded Bush to seek a resolution from the United Nations over the objections of Cheney and Rumsfeld.

The book reports that despite their outward optimism, Bush´s advisers had deep doubts about their strategy of bombing the Taliban while relying on ground forces from the Northern Alliance, the ragtag, factionalized opposition. At one point, the Pentagon developed plans to send in 50,000 U.S. troops. Bush, according to the book, hated what he saw as "hand-wringing" by his aides, but even he expressed doubts about the strategy, roaring at one point that he was "concerned about the fact that things aren´t moving."

At a climactic meeting in the Situation Room two weeks into the campaign, Bush went around the table, demanding that his aides affirm their support for the strategy. They pledged allegiance to his plan, and his call for alternatives was met with unanimous "no´s."

"Don´t let the press panic us," Bush said.

According to "Bush at War," the CIA spent $70 million in direct cash outlays on the ground in Afghanistan, a figure that also included money for setting up field hospitals. "That´s one bargain," the president said in an interview with Woodward last August. The money was handed out by about a half-dozen CIA teams spread through the country, starting with a 10-man paramilitary team code-named "Jawbreaker" that landed in Afghanistan on Sept. 27, 2001. The team leader carried $3 million in a single attache case.

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