The secret way to war - good summary of memo and lead-up to war

[steve2470]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GE17Ak02.html


By Mark Danner

Note
In its June 9 issue, the New York Review of Books will be the first American print publication to publish the full British "smoking gun" document, the secret memorandum of the minutes of a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's top advisers in July 2002, eight months before the Iraq war commenced. Leaked to the London Sunday Times, which first published it on May 1, the memo offers irrefutable proof of the way in which the George W Bush administration made its decision to invade Iraq - without significant consultation, reasonable intelligence on Iraq, or any desire to explore ways to avoid war - and well before seeking a congressional or United Nations mandate of any sort.

It was October 16, 2002, and the United States Congress had just voted to authorize the president to go to war against Iraq. When Bush came before members of his cabinet and Congress gathered in the East Room of the White House and addressed the American people, he was in a somber mood befitting a leader speaking frankly to free citizens about the gravest decision their country could make.


The 107th Congress, the president said, had just become "one of the few called by history to authorize military action to defend our country and the cause of peace". But, he hastened to add, no one should assume that war was inevitable. Though "Congress has now authorized the use of force", the president said emphatically, "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope the use of force will not become necessary."

President Bush went on: "Our goal is to fully and finally remove a real threat to world peace and to America. Hopefully this can be done peacefully. Hopefully we can do this without any military action. Yet, if Iraq is to avoid military action by the international community, it has the obligation to prove compliance with all the world's demands. It's the obligation of Iraq."

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