'The Secret Way to War' - New York Review of Books on Downing St. Memo

[reprehensor]

Very nice piece, puts the memo and the events that lead to the invasion of Iraq in a cohesive package.

The Secret Way to War

By Mark Danner

1.

It was October 16, 2002, and the United States Congress had just voted to authorize the President to go to war against Iraq. When George W. Bush came before members of his Cabinet and Congress gathered in the East Room of the White House and addressed the American people, he was in a somber mood befitting a leader speaking frankly to free citizens about the gravest decision their country could make.

The 107th Congress, the President said, had just become "one of the few called by history to authorize military action to defend our country and the cause of peace." But, he hastened to add, no one should assume that war was inevitable. Though "Congress has now authorized the use of force," the President said emphatically, "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope the use of force will not become necessary." The President went on:

Our goal is to fully and finally remove a real threat to world peace and to America. Hopefully this can be done peacefully. Hopefully we can do this without any military action. Yet, if Iraq is to avoid military action by the international community, it has the obligation to prove compliance with all the world's demands. It's the obligation of Iraq.

Iraq, the President said, still had the power to prevent war by "declaring and destroying all its weapons of mass destruction"—but if Iraq did not declare and destroy those weapons, the President warned, the United States would "go into battle, as a last resort."

more@link

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What I Heard about Iraq

[bullimiami]

1. he was doing a lot of dissassembling

""disassemble -- that means not tell the truth""

[Dudley_DUright]

4. also prefabricating

that means lying about something you did even before you do it.

[corbett]

5. Hilarious!

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050601/the_key_to_impeachment.php

[enough]

2. A strong, clear analysis.

snip>

Here the inspectors were introduced, but as a means to create the missing casus belli. If the UN could be made to agree on an ultimatum that Saddam accept inspectors, and if Saddam then refused to accept them, the Americans and the British would be well on their way to having a legal justification to go to war (the attorney general's third alternative of UN Security Council authorization).

Thus, the idea of UN inspectors was introduced not as a means to avoid war, as President Bush repeatedly assured Americans, but as a means to make war possible. War had been decided on; the problem under discussion here was how to make, in the prime minister's words, "the political context ...right." The "political strategy"—at the center of which, as with the Americans, was weapons of mass destruction, for "it was the regime that was producing the WMD"—must be strong enough to give "the military plan the space to work." Which is to say, once the allies were victorious the war would justify itself. The demand that Iraq accept UN inspectors, especially if refused, could form the political bridge by which the allies could reach their goal: "regime change" through "military action."

snip>

and much more

[applegrove]

3. Everyone should read. Thanks for reposting. n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

6. The chapter on the Iraq war in future history books will read like this

A very good read. Thank you for posting.

[geckosfeet]

7. The What I Heard About Iraq link is stunning.

[reprehensor]

8. It's a classic.

Been around for a while now, but kind of a sleeper.

Great thing to send to acquaintances soon to be persona non grata.

Or it might wake them up, you never know.

[struggle4progress]

9. kick

[dweller]

10. amazing...

glad you all are finally waking up.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x129063


dp