Six new Iraq war documents have come out

The Downing Street Memo was just the first. Now a number of other secret UK memos have come out, that offer more evidence that the US wanted war, and went to great lengths to start it.

This new series of memos express the UK's concerns about the legality of the war and the lack of planning for the end of the war. It is clear from looking at these documents that the UK understood the Bush administration plan was not to find a way to resolve the issues, but to find an excuse for war. What is written is important, but what we don't see is damning.

We do not see discussion about ways to get Saddam to agree, but ways to wrongfoot Saddam. There is no discussion about finding a path to peace, the talk is focused of coordinating the story to create a climate for war. Missing are talks about UN partnerships for peace, what we do see are ideas about how to make the war legal.

One memo focuses on the legal grounds for war. It makes it clear that great legal gymnastics would be needed to find a legal ground for war. Two of the memo's are relating information from Bush administration leaders. C.Rice is the subject of one and her commitment to regime change is made clear. Paul Wolfowitz was the topic of the other memo. Paul was still preaching on the Saddam ties to terror at this time.

The Ricketts memo of March 22, 2002 points out that, despite the claims of Wolfowitz and others the ties to Al Qaida are 'frankly unconvincing'. It also notes that Saddam had not really changed, but our level of fear had changed. It is noted that even a very complete review of Saddam's WMD capacity would not show much evidence of advancement and that from both a international law, and PR point of view 'regime change' as a reason for war would not work.

One bit that is amusing in the memo is this little line;

He can help Bush make good decisions by telling him things his own machine probably isn't.

It is clear that the Blair administration was very aware of the quality and honesty of the White House staff.

The Crawford memo runs four pages long. It starts with this warning The rewards from your visit to Crawford will be few. The risks are high, both for you and for the Government. , and in light of the past election, it was quite prophetic. This memo again touches on international law, the absence of ties between Saddam and Bin Laden and what the war was to achieve. Again, the tone makes it clear, peace was not an option, Bush wanted to attack.

The longest memo lays out the objectives of the UK. This one notes that containment had been at least partially successful, Saddam was not seriously threatening his neighbor's. Again the British focus on that fact war for regime change needed a legal justification and stresses that regime change has no basis in international law. The document list a number of obstacles to going to war. These obstacles are actually evidence of a successful policy of containment, and following international law.

What is missing in all of these pages is any considerations of a non military option. The British knew that we were marching to war, despite the public proclamations of our leadership. The total focus of creating an environment for war is obvious, and the final intent was not to protect the US or the UK, but destroy Saddam.

A classic war of aggression.