A Book I Must Own

Less than two months before invading Iraq, George W. Bush fretted that his war plans could be disrupted if United Nations weapons inspectors succeeded in gaining Saddam Hussein’s full cooperation, possibly leaving Bush “looking weak,” according to notes written by a secretary to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The notes, taken by Blair’s personal secretary Matthew Rycroft, were included in a new edition of Lawless World, a book by University College professor Philippe Sands. The notes on the Jan. 30, 2003, phone call between Bush and Blair were reviewed by the New York Times, which said they were marked secret and personal. [NYT, Oct. 14, 2005]

At the time, Blair wanted Bush to seek a second resolution from the U.N. Security Council that would have judged Iraq to be in violation of U.N. disarmament demands and would have authorized military action. According to the notes, Bush agreed that “it made sense to try for a second resolution, which he would love to have.”

But Bush’s deeper worry was that chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix would conclude that Hussein’s government was cooperating in the search for weapons of mass destruction, thus delaying or blocking U.S.-led military action. Bush’s “biggest concern was looking weak,” the British document said.

As it turns out, I was fortunate enough to have a lecture today from one of the last inspectors to leave Iraq before the war started. A Canadian man, he described a very moving last evening in Baghdad where, between shredding documents and an (early) birthday party for himself, they spent most of the evening crying because the hotel workers they'd gotten to know were very possibly going to be killed, or have their loved ones killed.

When the floor was opened up for questions, a rightist tried to ask if maybe he thought the weapons were still hidden, they just hadn't managed to find them yet. The former inspector, using all the exaggerated politeness you'd use to respond to someone who'd just shit in your living room, said that if a) the UN hadn't found them, b) the US hadn't found them, and c) there was good reason to believe they didn't exist in the first place, then maybe, just maybe, they weren't there.

And now we get confirmation of what was obvious by the time the war started: Bush wasn't afraid that the war would start - he was afraid it wouldn't. He was more concerned that he would "look weak" than that thousands of people would die because of his orders. This, to put it bluntly, is psychopathic. I've written before - faced with the choice of success without war, or success with war, it's a no-brainer. Only someone truly bent on mass killing would choose war. Only a truly demented mind would choose war over their own self-image.

George Bush is an evil man.