Here's Downing Street Memo reporter Michael Smith, explaining that while the Bush Administration was fixing facts and intelligence around policy, it was also breaking Iraq's air defense infrastructure: Put simply, U.S. aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were dropping a lot more bombs...But these initial "spikes of activity" didn't have the desired effect. The Iraqis didn't retaliate...So at the end of August, the allies dramatically intensified the bombing into what was effectively the initial air war...Bush and Blair began their war not in March 2003, as everyone believed, but at the end of August 2002, six weeks before Congress approved military action against Iraq...The way in which the intelligence was "fixed" to justify war is old news. The real news is the shady April 2002 deal to go to war, the cynical use of the U.N. to provide an excuse, and the secret, illegal air war without the backing of Congress.
Pre-War is Hell
Pre-War is Hell
Pre-War is Hell
Here's Downing Street Memo reporter Michael Smith, explaining that while the Bush Administration was fixing facts and intelligence around policy, it was also breaking Iraq's air defense infrastructure: Put simply, U.S. aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were dropping a lot more bombs...But these initial "spikes of activity" didn't have the desired effect. The Iraqis didn't retaliate...So at the end of August, the allies dramatically intensified the bombing into what was effectively the initial air war...Bush and Blair began their war not in March 2003, as everyone believed, but at the end of August 2002, six weeks before Congress approved military action against Iraq...The way in which the intelligence was "fixed" to justify war is old news. The real news is the shady April 2002 deal to go to war, the cynical use of the U.N. to provide an excuse, and the secret, illegal air war without the backing of Congress.