THE SECRET DOWNING STREET MEMO

Just in case you missed the secret July 23, 2002 memo of Tony Blair reporting that George W. Bush had decided to invade Iraq, but he hadn't yet made up his mind WHY...

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
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It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
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The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult.

Gee, Saddam wasn't threatening his neighbors (or the U.S.) and had limited WMD capability. But Bush and Blair "desired" regime change, so they'd cook up some good reason to sell it. Sounds good to 51% of the American population. Wonder if they'd buy New Coke from the chimpster.

UPDATE: TomPaine.com has context, and more.