The New Road

London starting to crumble

Blair won't be booted out of office over Iraq. Mainly because the opposition is more draconian than he is. But the stuff popping out of the British government is very interesting:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

As is obvious now the war was absolutely pre-determined. Most likely just in the aftermath of 9/11 where the Bush administration saw an excellent excuse in the rubble of the twin towers to invade Iraq (which had nothing to do with it.)

And, as we know now, it was all about winning the war. There was no plan for winning the peace. And I'm serious about that. Previous reports have talked about slide shows where the military strategy was discussed in great detail but the aftermath slide had just the acronym 'TBD'.

Then there is this:

The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

Yep.

And then there is this one:

The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.

If it's not clear to you by now. It should be. This war was founded on bullshit, poorly planned, badly executed. And now we are reaping the benefits of that.