British Intelligence Warned of Iraq War
Washington Post: Seven months before the invasion of Iraq, the head of British foreign intelligence reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair that President Bush wanted to topple Saddam Hussein by military action and warned that in Washington intelligence was “being fixed around the policy,” according to notes of a July 23, 2002, meeting with Blair at No. 10 Downing Street.
“Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.”
Meanwhile, the on-going disintegration of Iraq continues apace. Soon the straw-man argument that, regardless of the intel, it was better to rid Iraq of a brutal dictator, will hold no further water.
In Rolling Stone magazine, The Quagmire
Two years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq is perched on the brink of civil war. Months after the election, the new Iraqi government remains hunkered down inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, surviving only because it is defended by thousands of U.S. troops.
“The breakup of Iraq would be nearly as bad as the breakup of India in 1947,” says David Mack, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state with wide experience in the Arab world. “The Kurds can’t count on us to come in and save their bacon. Do they think we are going to mount an air bridge on their behalf?” Israel might support the Kurds, but Iran would intervene heavily in support of the Shiites with men, arms and money, while Arab countries would back their fellow Sunnis. “You’d see Jordan, Saudi Arabia, even Egypt intervening with everything they’ve got—tanks, heavy weapons, lots of money, even troops,” says White, the former State Department official.
“If they see the Sunnis getting beaten up by the Shiites, there will be extensive Arab support,” agrees a U.S. Army officer. “There will be no holds barred.”