Bush to Blair; Iraq to be invaded without second resolution or WMDs found

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/international/europe/27memo.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular&oref=slogin

Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says

By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: March 27, 2006

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But 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 , or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.

"The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."

The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons.

[dajoki]

1. kick

[gratuitous]

2. The only promise Bush made in March 2003

And you can look it up, was the one during his press conference (that's how important invading Iraq was, he even held a press conference) when he said that he would seek a second vote from the UN authorizing a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Ludicrous on its face, the assertion was swallowed hook, line and stinker by the major media, and when Bush launched the invasion of Iraq without that second vote, the networks and the cable shows were too dazzled by the pretty pictures of all those bombs dropping and the soaring ratings to care overmuch about some bit of bureaucratic foolery.

The media seem to be coming around, very slowly. But first they have to be reminded of so much they have determined to forget in the past three years.

[dajoki]

5. they have to be reminded ?

how much has been forgotten?

[lumpy]

3. kick. read.

v

[wicket]

4. K & R

:kick:

[Disturbed]

6. "No President wants War."

'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as commander in chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.' GW Bush

[dajoki]

7. thanks for laugh n/t