According to a former British ambassador to Washington, the US president had come under intense pressure from some in his own military to attack Saddam Hussein in the days after the 2001 terrorist outrages in the US.

But, said Sir Christopher Meyer, when Mr Blair met the US president at his Camp David retreat a few days later he succesfully argued for al-Qaeda and the Taleban regime in Afghanistan to be confronted first.

This is simply mind-boggling--it's like getting hit by a snowball from an unseen source and then pegging Jimmy, standing in plain view, just because you saw him holding a snowball 10 years ago. Sucessfully convincing a majority of Americans that Iraq was somehow responsible for 9/11 a year and a half after the event, even though they're not, just to justify a war of choice and political calculation, is duplicitous and dishonest and pretty horrible in its own way, but to just lash out at Iraq immediately after a terrorist organization unconnected with that country commits a horrible atrocity is...christ, I can't think of a better term than fucking retarded. Shit, it's Tourettic, that's what it is, like there being a sudden blast of noise and you smack your forehead. It's like, I dunno, running around punching puppies because your ice cream melted. It's just amazingly stupid, and I would be even more scared if I heard that Blair had a hard time convincing him--i.e., if he had to say a single fucking word beyond "George, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Well, OK, maybe a few more words.
posted by Mike B. at 4:54 PM 0 comments