The bombshell from the British papers this morning has had virtually no impact yet on D Kos, and I'm curious to know why it has not turned American politics upside down already. The leaked memo from the Prime Minister's office of a secret meeting (July 23, 2002) shows that after consulting with Bush and his administration, the British leaders met to strategize about an invasion of Iraq that Bush had already decided upon (months before the Congressional resolution)! The memo reveals the depths of cynicism of both the US and UK governments. For ex., the UK head of intelligence reports that for the Bush admin "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy". Much of the memo is devoted to developing a strategy to provoke a war against Iraq, and the problem that there was no apparent justification for it. The Foreign Secretary said "the case [for war] was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran." More on the flip, with a link to the evidence.
The leaked memo shows that Blair's idea was to demand the return of weapons' inspectors; if Hussein refused, that would provide a pretext for war, and if he admitted them then they might find some sort of grounds for war. The memo also indicates that by July 2002 the US military had already stepped up attacks against Iraq for the express purpose of provoking that war outright. The British thought the Bush administration wanted to barge right into a war (timed around the fall elections), so the Brits were hoping to persuade Bush to use diplomacy to fabricate a pretext for war. The British Attorney General indicated that the only grounds for an invasion that were even remotely plausible was an old UN resolution. Blair indicated that Bush wanted to make a case against Hussein for WMD tied to terrorism.
This is colossal in my opinion; so why are we not already talking about 'Iraqgate' in this country? The Bush administration at this date was dismissing talk of an Iraq war as a figment of journalists' imagination; throughout the next eight months Bush & Co. continued to pretend that the decision had yet to be made. So this story blows wide open Bush's pretense of being a straight-shooter. Most fundamentally, it exposes his contempt for democratic process.
Here is a link to my diary from last night on the memo, which just scrolled away into the aether. It links to the text of the memo, and to stories in The Independent and in The Sunday Times.
Update [2005-5-1 23:19:45 by smintheus]: This Diary has revealed a deep vein of cynicism about the possibility of getting the public, government, or MSM to treat this revelation with the seriousness it demands. We've all been beaten down by the bitter record of the last four years, but cynicism and a sense of helplessness is exactly what this administration is fostering. What is needed is a plan of action to make this story the center of political debate in the US. I encourage you to shift discussion to that topic, and far below in the comments I will propose some possible steps that we could take individually and collectively.