...Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.
I think this story merits much more attention than it has gotten in the US press thus far. It says a lot about both how and why the US fights the war it's currently fighting in Iraq. And it says something about why we left Afghanistan and the prioritization of Bin Laden as early as we did. And it should come as no shock to anyone who's been concious for the last 4 years it provides yet more support for the fact that the Bush administration invaded (after purposefully skewing intelligence) in a cavalier manner, woefully underprepared for the challenges they would force the Americans and the British to face.
Posted by armand at June 12, 2005 11:17 AM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs