Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq

foundit66 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 12:36 AM

Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq

Quote:

A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.

The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.

Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan "to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover". Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions.

The president expressed hopes that an Iraqi defector would be "brought out" to give a public presentation on Saddam's WMD or that someone might assassinate the Iraqi leader. However, Bush confirmed even without a second resolution, the US was prepared for military action. The memo said Blair told Bush he was "solidly with the president".

The five-page document, written by Blair's foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, and copied to Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff, the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Lord Boyce, and the UK's ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, outlines how Bush told Blair he had decided on a start date for the war.

Paraphrasing Bush's comments at the meeting, Manning, noted: "The start date for the military campaign was now pencilled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin."

Last night an expert on international law who is familar with the memo's contents said it provided vital evidence into the two men's frames of mind as they considered the invasion and its aftermath and must be presented to the Chilcott inquiry established by Gordon Brown to examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Iraq war.

Philippe Sands, QC, a professor of law at University College London who is expected to give evidence to the inquiry, said confidential material such as the memo was of national importance, making it vital that the inquiry is not held in private, as Brown originally envisioned.

In today's Observer, Sands writes: "Documents like this raise issues of national embarrassment, not national security. The restoration of public confidence requires this new inquiry to be transparent. Contentious matters should not be kept out of the public domain, even in the run-up to an election."

Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq | Politics | The Observer

The more that comes out on this issue, the more it is apparent Bush wanted to justify a war REGARDLESS of what was going on.

cnredd · #2 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 02:23 AM

This ONLY works for people who already have it in the mind that the ONLY reason we went to war with Iraq was WMDs...

House Resolution 114 already confirms this isn't true, but tell that to partisans...

As far as the penciled-in date, it was already PUBLIC knowledge that the military told the president that the invasion's best option is the beginning of March...Right after winter but right before the agonizing Iraqi summer...

BTW - It started on March 20th, not the 10th...(Actually, the 19th if you count the pre-invasion airstrikes)...

This should be in the Conspiracy Theory forum...

saltwn · #3 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 02:26 AM

I get what you're saying, but I still think the heart of the Middle Eastern problem was/is Baghdad. We needed to get in there. Underhanded tactics must be used for important stuff sometimes. Just a fact of life. I like That Obama is trying to be more cautious, but I'd bet there's a lot of stuff going on right now we don't/may never know about. And if we did we'd probablt $hite our panties.

Spencer Collins · #4 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 02:36 AM

Saddam himself provoked the invasion by targeting our aircraft and by blocking UN inspections.You bluff long enough you risk someone calling your hand...case closed!

cnredd · #5 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spencer Collins

Saddam himself provoked the invasion by targeting our aircraft and by blocking UN inspections.You bluff long enough you risk someone calling your hand...case closed!

On top of that, you can add a multitude of other reasons (mass graves, paying suicide bomber families, presidential assasination attempt, 16 broken UN resolutions, guilty of past use of WMDs., etc)..

Mikeyy · #6 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 06:06 AM

Iraq invasion was a bad idea. It was a bad idea at the time. Even if you buy the WMD stuff. Or even if you thought Saddam had to be defeated.
We went unprepared. We were led by leaders who chose to be self delusional. And they probably got more Americans killed by their mismanagement of the entire thing then needed. And we still are not done. So whatever you believe about Iraq Bush and Company did a bad job.

faithful_servant · #7 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikeyy

Iraq invasion was a bad idea. It was a bad idea at the time. Even if you buy the WMD stuff. Or even if you thought Saddam had to be defeated.
We went unprepared. We were led by leaders who chose to be self delusional. And they probably got more Americans killed by their mismanagement of the entire thing then needed. And we still are not done. So whatever you believe about Iraq Bush and Company did a bad job.

Every war that was ever fought can be critiqued in hindsight. The thing is most intelligent people use such critiquing for finding ways to improve in the future, but the "I hate Bush" Left uses it only to fuel their hatred. At one time the Left believed in freeing the oppressed, but as soon as someone actually did it, they hated him for it.

Mikeyy · #8 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 09:36 AM

Actually you are right. People should learn. Funny thing is all the lessons they learned were already explained to them. They just refused to listen. Remember General Shinseki or Richard Clark Or the UN weapons inspectors. Or a host of others. They did what Rummy wanted. But Rummy was an arrogant ******* who had no idea what he was doing. But he kept bluffing by being testy. Condi did the same. She just kept repeating that there would be plenty of time to think about where mistakes were made. But now is not the time. And I gusee she still hopes the time will never come. Do you remember our soldiers ordering their own flack gear. Strenghtening their hummers with parts ordered from their own homes. Come on don't even start this thing. The more I remember the more pissed off I get.

Quote:

Originally Posted by faithful_servant

Every war that was ever fought can be critiqued in hindsight. The thing is most intelligent people use such critiquing for finding ways to improve in the future, but the "I hate Bush" Left uses it only to fuel their hatred. At one time the Left believed in freeing the oppressed, but as soon as someone actually did it, they hated him for it.

faithful_servant · #9 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikeyy

Actually you are right. People should learn. Funny thing is all the lessons they learned were already explained to them. They just refused to listen. Remember General Shinseki or Richard Clark Or the UN weapons inspectors. Or a host of others. They did what Rummy wanted. But Rummy was an arrogant ******* who had no idea what he was doing. But he kept bluffing by being testy. Condi did the same. She just kept repeating that there would be plenty of time to think about where mistakes were made. But now is not the time. And I gusee she still hopes the time will never come. Do you remember our soldiers ordering their own flack gear. Strenghtening their hummers with parts ordered from their own homes. Come on don't even start this thing. The more I remember the more pissed off I get.

WWII - The Battle of the Bulge. American soldiers were woefully unprepared for the weather or the longevity of the battle. There were soldiers writing home asking for warm clothes because it was faster to get them by mail than through the military. You'd be blaming the President for this as well. Not every conflict goes exactly as planned, in fact almost none do. There's no doubt that things went poorly at the beginning of OIF, but that IN NO WAY negates the massive amount of good we did in Iraq. You want to hate Pres. Bush and you'll dig up every single issue you find to support your hatred, but there's NOTHING you can dig up that changes the fact that we libertated the most oppressed country on Earth from one of the most horrific gov'ts ever. Bitch, whine, complain all you want, but there are 25,000,000 people who are living in a free nation today that were living in fear and hopelessness 10 years ago. What happened to the liberal compassion for the oppressed people of the world? What happened to the liberal ideal of freeing the downtrodden? IMO -it died in 2000 when you lost the election and decided that partisan politics were more important than your integrity.

Mikeyy · #10 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by faithful_servant

Quote:

WWII - The Battle of the Bulge. American soldiers were woefully unprepared for the weather or the longevity of the battle. There were soldiers writing home asking for warm clothes because it was faster to get them by mail than through the military. You'd be blaming the President for this as well. Not every conflict goes exactly as planned, in fact almost none do. There's no doubt that things went poorly at the beginning of OIF, but that IN NO WAY negates the massive amount of good we did in Iraq.

Why would you compare WWII and Iraq? Iraq wasn't urgent. It was contained. And we had plenty of time to prepair and do it right. But you know as well as I that that administration assumed they could do it on the cheap and never planned a what if scenario. They were arrogant. And in a hurry. You can't even compare the two except for the fact that the Iraq war has gone on longer.

Quote:

You want to hate Pres. Bush and you'll dig up every single issue you find to support your hatred,

Not true. I don't hate Bush. I just think he was a very bad POTUS. And I didn't dig up everything. Hell I barely scratched the surface.

Quote:

but there's NOTHING you can dig up that changes the fact that we libertated the most oppressed country on Earth from one of the most horrific gov'ts ever.

Iraq wasn't even close to being the most oppressed country on earth. And we haven't left yet and there are already cracks in the coalition. The Kurds aren't going to stay put.

Quote:

Bitch, whine, complain all you want, but there are 25,000,000 people who are living in a free nation today that were living in fear and hopelessness 10 years ago. What happened to the liberal compassion for the oppressed people of the world? What happened to the liberal ideal of freeing the downtrodden? IMO -it died in 2000 when you lost the election and decided that partisan politics were more important than your integrity.

I'm not bitching and whining. Its done now. We are stuck with whatever the situation turns in to. But this argument is BS. At the same time you are saying you supported this because of those poor downtrodden Iraqis There were scores of children being raped and starved and chopped up in Africa. And still nobody acts. So the compasion argument falls a bit flat when we really investigate why Iraq and not Samolia. Or many other places. Myanmar. I would submit that the people starving under lil Kim were in more serious need. And NK exports the most weapons. Bush wanted Iraq as a trophy. That is the facts.

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