Washington ? 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 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 an August interview, Bush also spoke about North Korea and its dictator Kim Jong II.

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 II.”