Bush Determined to Strike in Iraq
In the weeks before the Iraq war, Bush's public face was impatient, eager to begin the invasion, and unwilling to acknowledge the validity of opposing viewpoints. In private, his attitude, as the transcript of a conversation between him and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar released byEl Paistoday reveals... was, uh, exactly the same. Pretty much.
As Mr. Aznar urged patience (but not "infinite patience"), Mr. Bush stood firm on his date for invasion. "There are two weeks left," he insisted, according to the transcript. "We will be in Baghdad at the end of March."
He also called dealing with the UN "Chinese water torture," which, as everyone knows, is thebadversion of our good ol'Americanwater torture, which we'd soon unveil in Iraq.
Anyway, Bush said we'd invade Iraq unless Saddam went into exile. Then Saddam announce that he would go into exile, but only if we let him take $1 billion in walking around money (and also, for some reason, all the information he had accumulated on weapons of mass destruction, in case he decided to build one in Qatar or wherever he ended up). But we invaded anyway!
It's a total smoking gun! Bush was determined to invade Iraq no matter what the UN said or what the WMD intelligence said or what Saddam did! He lied to everyone! Impeach him! Impeach himjust like we did when the Downing Street memos revealed all of this two years ago!
Records Show Bush Pledging Iraq Invasion With or Without U.N. Backing [ABC]
Report Says Hussein Was Open To Exile Before 2003 Invasion [WP]
Bush's Private Thoughts Before Invasion [The Lede]
The Bush-Aznar Conversation [Harper's]