The US came on the verge of marching its special forces into Pakistan to smash the Taliban and Al Qaeda safe havens twice, post 9/11 and then again in mid-2008, but the country's rulers each time thwarted the attempt, former President George Bush has revealed.
The former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had frustrated him from the move by conjuring up a spectre of a revolt in Pakistan and the possibility of militants taking over the reins of power and the country's nuclear arsenal, Mr Bush said.
And then in 2008 he himself changed his mind and instead ordered deployment of drones, the former President said. Breaking his silence on the tumultuous days after the dreadful 9/11 terror attacks on the US, Mr Bush said that Mr Musharraf and Pakistani generals had always sought to misled him by saying that it was Indians who were influencing Americans against Pakistan.
Pushing himself back into the public eye after a two-year hibernation, the former President has come out with these startling new disclosures in his new book, which he has titled Decision Points, where he says that post 9/11 some in the Pakistan Intelligence Services maintained relationship with the Taliban and in fact provided them safe havens.
Mr Bush recalls that as the Taliban and Al Qaeda were on the run from Afghan capital Kabul, he wanted to send special forces inside Pakistan to take head on these terrorists safe havens, but Mr Musharraf warned him of revolt in the Pakistan Army in which the extremists could take control of the country including its nuclear arsenal.
"He (Musharraf) told me that sending troops into combat in Pakistan would be viewed as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. A revolt would likely ensue. His government would probably fall. The extremists could take over the country including its nuclear arsenal," Mr Bush said adding that in that case he told him that Pakistan soldiers needed to take the lead and for several years the arrangements worked.
In return, the US lifted sanctions and the Congress provided $3 billion in economic aid to Pakistan. "Over time, it became clear that Mr Musharraf either would not or could not fulfil all his promises. Part of the problem was Pakistan's obsession with India," he said.
"In almost every conversation we had, Mr Musharraf accused India of wrongdoing. Four days after 9 /11, he told me that Indians were trying to equate us with terrorists and trying to influence your mind.
As a result, the Pakistani military spent most of its resources preparing war with India," Bush wrote. "A related problem was that Pakistani forces pursued the Taliban much aggressively, than they pursued Al Qaeda. Others wanted an insurance policy in case America abandoned Afghanistan and India tried to gain influence there," he said.
Whatever the reason, the Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan took refuge in Pakistan's tribal regions and populated cities like Peshawar and Quetta.
"In 2005 and 2006, these sanctuaries aided the rise of the insurgency," Mr Bush said. By the middle of 2008, Mr Bush says he was getting frustrated with continued existence of extremist sanctuaries in Pakistan and at this time, he again thought of sending his Special Forces across the border.
In his book, Mr Bush refers to a meeting with Special Forces in Afghanistan in 2006. "Mr President, we need permission to go and kick some ass inside Pakistan," a Special Force official is quoted as saying by Bush, but this time again he decided against sending troops inside Pakistan.
It is at this time, Mr Bush says that he ordered deployment of drone attacks inside Pakistan. George Bush labelled Mr Musharraf as an "unreliable and reluctant" partner in the war against terror.
Decision points appears a week after a momentous November 2 elections in the US which saw Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in a surprising recovery after falling out of favour with American voters.
The Bush book has a print order of some 1.5 million copies and in the 500 page memoirs the former President writes of his errors in the Iraq war and not finding the weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Bush over the next few weeks will be all over the American television appearing in shows and in Oprah Winfrey's afternoon celebrity programme to hardsell his book.