Footnote to the footnote

Something that should make those numbers drop still more. From the Observer (UK) for April 4:

President George Bush first asked Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after the terror attacks of 11 September, 2001.

According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror's initial goal - dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy.

It was clear, Meyer says, 'that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions'.

The charge is from a lengthy article in the May issue of Vanity Fair, which, the paper says, does much to corroborate Richard Clarke's testimony that Bush was "obsessed" with Iraq.

In late July, 2002, Blair's foreign policy adviser was in Washington meeting with Shrub and national security adviser Can'tbe Right.

Vanity Fair quotes a senior American official from Vice-President Dick Cheney's office who says he read the transcript of a telephone call between Blair and Bush a few days later.

'The way it read was that, come what may, Saddam was going to go; they said they were going forward, they were going to take out the regime, and they were doing the right thing. Blair did not need any convincing. There was no, "Come on, Tony, we've got to get you on board". I remember reading it and then thinking, "OK, now I know what we're going to be doing for the next year".'

Before the call, this official says, he had the impression that the probability of invasion was high, but still below 100 per cent. Afterwards, he says, 'it was a done deal'.

All the stuff about "no decision," "getting the inspectors in," "we gave him every chance," and all the rest of it - just lies. All of it.

I mean, we already knew that - but it's always nice to have corroboration.

Sidebar: The Vanity Fair article also makes use of the contemporaneous diaries of Blair's former international development secretary, Clare Short, which make it clear that while Bush and company were lying to us about the intent to attack Iraq, Blair was lying to his own cabinet.

They do say you can judge someone by the company they keep.