The New New After Downing Street

Think Progress is pissed off that the US media hasn't done squat about the revelations of the latest pre-Iraq War memo that's getting loads of traction in major newspapers in Britain. (I share that sentiment).

The Independent confirms a report by the Guardian on a newly-revealed British memo. The memo claims that Bush made the decision to attack Iraq two months prior to the war. Furthermore, the memo states that Bush was thinking about baiting Iraq into a breach of UN resolutions by “flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colors.”

They then pull together some of the best quotes from not only this most recent revelation, but also from the previously released Downing Street Memo and the British Briefing Papers; here are some of the more pertinent:

“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.” [Link]

“Even the best survey of Iraq’s WMD programmes will not show much advance in recent years on [the] nuclear, missile or CW/BW fronts.” [Link]

“The two leaders [Bush and Blair] were worried by the lack of hard evidence that Saddam Hussein had broken UN resolutions, though privately they were convinced that he had. According to the memorandum, Mr Bush said: ‘The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.’” [Link]

“On January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - … Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.” [Link]

“[Bush] added that he had a date, 10 March, pencilled in for the start of military action. The war actually began on 20 March.” [Link]