Other sources concur.
British Memo: War of choice
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
In the first months of 2003, we joined much of the rest of the world in hopes that war with Iraq could be avoided, that a diplomatic breakthrough or confirmation of reports that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction might render the military option unnecessary.
How silly of us.
A confidential memo recording a Jan. 31, 2003, Oval Office meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair makes it clear that the two men were going to war in Iraq in any event.
Chris Matthews "Hardball" "rips Bush, Blair and Cheney": MATTHEWS What struck me in the memorandum again today was that the President George W. Bush had decided to go to war with Iraq before completing the inspections. Had decided to do so before sending Secretary of State--and a skeptic, I must say--Colin Powell to the United Nations.
What is the significance of that? That he made the decision--as recorded by David Manning who was working for the Prime Minister at the time--before either of those events occurred . The U.N. presentation which was apparently to sell Europe of the fact that there were weapons of mass destruction and the completion of the weapons inspections themselves. Both were not waited for. The President decided before then. So did Tony Blair apparently.
Boston Globe A madness for war
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | March 29, 2006
PRESIDENT BUSH said he invaded Iraq to rid the world of a madman. It is ever more clearer Bush went mad to start it.
International Herald Tribune: Bush was set on path to war, memo by British adviser says
LONDON Behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
BBC News: Bush-Blair Iraq war memo revealed
San Francisco Chronicle: Memo details Bush's resolve to invade Iraq |
