The Air America crowd is bleary-eyed with excitement over the minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair’s cabinet in 2002 where the pending liberation of Iraq was discussed. Their claim that the memo is some sort of “smoking gun” on secret plans to falsify intelligence is a testament to their illiteracy. Here’s the passage that gets their hearts pounding:
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. 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. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
The term “fixed” is understood by Franken’s minions as meaning “fabricated”, but it should be properly understood in its British sense as “placed”, this being a British document and all. The document is saying that Bush will furnish the evidence of Saddam’s misbehavior. There was, of course, general consensus around the world in the late 90s and early 00s that Saddam’s government would likely arm terrorist groups at some point with deadlier weapons than they could come up with on their own. This was the predicate for the Iraq Liberation Act the US Congress passed in 1998, and the basis of some vigorous anti-Saddam campaigning from Blair during the Clinton Administration. So there was no reason to believe that evidence supporting the liberation of Iraq would be anything but genuine.
The memo simply indicates that Bush and Blair had both decided that it was time to stop bullshitting and start walking the walk on Iraq. That we didn’t find a ready stockpile of weapons doesn’t really matter – they would have been manufactured as soon as the embargo was lifted, and by then it would have been too late to act.
I don’t expect this memo to bring down any governments; it was published in Britain before the recent elections that Blair won handily. Making Franken’s minions even more hungry for Ben and Jerry’s than usual is its only consequence.
There was, of course, general consensus around the world in the late 90s and early 00s that Saddam’s government would likely arm terrorist groups at some point with deadlier weapons than they could come up with on their own.
Any proof of that?
Any?
The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 is a good start, it was passed by the US Congress and signed by one Bill Clinton. You remember him, don’t you? He launched a bit of a missile attack on Afghanistan or something.