So somebody (or somebodies) in the British government think that we
had decided to go to war months before we sought permission and didn’t
plan for the aftermath. The “Down Streeet memo” is now the latest weapon with which to bludgeon the president and Donald Rumsfeld. Planning for war, however,
was the only thing that led to the limited cooperation Saddam provided.
From 1998 to 2002 he ignored demands for inspections and only allowed
them to resume once the threat of troops appeared. If we had not
prepositioned the troops, he would have ignored the calls for
inspections, the UN would not have passed a resolution and we’d be in
the same spot with Iraq (and probably Libya) as we are with Iran and
North Korea, and nobody likes either of those situations.
Another
interesting point in the memo is the contention that North Korea,
Libya, and Iran in July 2002 were further to developing WMD than Iraq,
but somehow most commentators lay the blame squarely with Bush’s
inattention and that somehow NKorea was able to make more progress in
one year of the Bush presidency than Iraq had in four years without
inspectors.
I know these are old arguments, but they keep coming back. I’m really looking forward to hearing Kevin Miller on Monday. Will Walter Jones be attending?
