Bush-Blair Memos Reveal Disregard for Diplomacy

Details are finally coming in from the many-times FOIA‘d White House memos detailing correspondence between George W. Bush and Tony Blair leading up to the invastion of Iraq.

Revealed in the memo, minutes of a conversation between Bush and Blair on January 31, 2003:

President Bush assures Blair that violence is highly unlikely after Saddam’s regime is dismantled. Furthermore, the president expresses his desire to provoke war in Iraq with language that is unsupportive and downright insulting to the troops:

President 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.”

The fact that PM Blair approved Bush’s decision to go to war without researching the legality of the invasion and the legitimacy of the U.S. WMD findings a major controversy In the UK.

BBC Channel 4:

“The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would ‘twist arms’ and ‘even threaten’. But he had to say that if ultimately we failed, military action would follow anyway.”

Prime Minister Blair responded that he was: “solidly with the President and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam.”

Think Progress documents the numerous times that Bush stated he was “not sure” about going to war with Iraq after presenting the idea as a sure thing in his conversation with Blair, i.e. “We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq.”

See Channel4.com’s special report.