The big lie

The New York Times has a detailed analysis of the famous memo in which Bush, in conference with Blair, shows he'll do just about anything to justify war with Iraq:

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.

Two boyish Western leaders, Bush and Blair, were quite eager to make war.  It was almost a matter of pushing toy war machinery across Mummy's carpet.

The latest memo is striking in its characterization of frank, almost casual, conversation by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair about the most serious subjects. At one point, the leaders swapped ideas for a postwar Iraqi government. "As for the future government of Iraq, people would find it very odd if we handed it over to another dictator," the prime minister is quoted as saying. "Bush agreed," Mr. Manning wrote. This exchange, like most of the quotations in this article, have not been previously reported.

Bush is remarkably ignorant about -- or more likely unwilling to face -- what US and British forces would be facing in Iraq.

Mr. Bush devoted much of the meeting to outlining the military strategy. The president, the memo says, said the planned air campaign "would destroy Saddam's command and control quickly." It also said that he expected Iraq's army to "fold very quickly." He also is reported as telling the prime minister that the Republican Guard would be "decimated by the bombing."

And a pretty naive view of Pentagon preparations for war.

Referring to the Defense Department, it said: "A planning cell in D.O.D. was looking at all aspects and would deploy to Iraq to direct operations as soon as the military action was over. Bush said that a great deal of detailed planning had been done on supplying the Iraqi people with food and medicine."

And then, of course, Bush lied.  Big time.  Right after these discussions with Tony Blair in which they acknowledged that "no unconventional weapons had been found,"  Bush lied in a press conference.

At a White House news conference following the closed-door session, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair said "the crisis" had to be resolved in a timely manner. "Saddam Hussein is not disarming," the president told reporters. "He is a danger to the world. He must disarm. And that's why I have constantly said — and the prime minister has constantly said — this issue will come to a head in a matter of weeks, not months."

Knowing the enemy had no more toys to break, the two boys casually decided to go to war anyway.