When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later....
In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts openly asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and compelling military reason for war. "U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," Ricketts says in the memo. "For Iraq, `regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."....read on
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It's hitting the fan. I can't wait to hear Scotty on Monday. Maybe some journalists ( not you Milbank ) will become much more agressive on their coverage of the DSM. Was Russert being a prophet when he called them "famous"? <snark>. Maureen Dowd says in her book Bush World from this review: "One theme found throughout the book is Junior s attempt to escape the shadow of his father's presidency, and how this desire directly relates to the decisions Bush has made, particularly in relation to the handling of Iraq and Saddam Hussein."
