That Infamous January 31 meeting between Bush and Blair

[journalist3072]

It was nearly four years ago, on January 31, 2003, that George Bush and Tony Blair met at the White House in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

And we must not forget what happened during that meeting.

It was at that January 31 meeting that:

- George W. Bush told Tony Blair he was determined to strike Iraq, even in the absence of a 2nd U.N. resolution, and, this is really important, even if U.N. inspectors found zero evidence of an illegal Iraq weapons program.

- Bush also told Blair "The diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning."

- Bush was so concerned about the lack of any concrete evidence against Sadaam, that he considered the idea of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours." Bush rationalized that if Sadaam fired upon these reconnassance planes, he would be violating U.N. resolutions. In other words, in the abscence of evidence against Sadaam, Bush wanted to entrap him.

- During the meeting, Bush told Blair he did not think there would be "internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups."

Source: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/7408

These are all issues that the new Congress should put on its purview to investigate. Let's encourage them to do so!

[Ignacio Upton]

1. Another Gulf of Tonkin, eh?

I think he would have tried the faux UN plane scheme had 9/11 not happened.

[journalist3072]

2. Doesn't it just blow your mind that

a President of the United States, a Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, would even contemplate such a thing? Entrapping someone so that you have a reason to go to war? Wanting that person to provoke you into war? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that one.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. I'm not surprised that he'd propose such a plan

:grr:

[jannyk]

3. I love these guys...

..they are so fucking predictable. They are doing everything in their power right now to entrap Iran.

:Bush was so concerned about the lack of any concrete evidence against Sadaam, that he considered the idea of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours." Bush rationalized that if Sadaam fired upon these reconnassance planes, he would be violating U.N. resolutions. In other words, in the abscence of evidence against Sadaam, Bush wanted to entrap him: