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Prime Minister em
IRAQ: THE SEARCH FOR WMD AND THE CASE FOR THE WAR
I am very worried that, inexorably, we are being pushed into a position where we accept that the war wiil only have been justified if a significant WMD find is made. This is exactly the place where our opponents, at home and abroad, and the media want us. We should not go there.
The military action was justified the day we took it, on the grounds that: - chemical and biological
(i) the Saddam regime had had systems - we know that for sure;
(ii) it had failed to meet a mountain of UN obligations;
a huge number of questions about its WMD postion and capabilities remained unanswered (Blix's 173 page report), and Irag simply refused to cooperate properly, raising entirely legitimate issues in the minds of most members of the Security However, I remain sceptical that physical evidence of WMD will be found:- Saddam had every motive, and months of notice before ( i) the fall of Baghdad, to destroy all WMD evidence; so did his collaborators;
remarkably little circumstantial evidence has so far
(11)
been forthcoming;
(iii) the expectations from the intelligence have always been greater than the product, so far;
I was struck by General Franks' caution on this when (Powell has been dubious about finds going back I saw him last summer and I think this reflects a wider view in the us military) i DECLASSAED
across the world of why we took military action appreciation will be enhanced, to say the least, if there are good finds.
and have 1000 men doing nothing but But if we carry on saying confidently that the material is there for the finding, search for the next six months, and still nothing is found, Knowing that it yas there is not the same as knowing it is there.
Our opponents have a further motive for making this the sole object of the war, which is to move the spotlight away from the obvious success of the military action, when they were banking on us being bogged down for weeks of ferocious fighting by forces who were true to Chirac's claim [to you] that "the Iragis love Saddam".
However, if we can not point to significant WMD finds, it the more important that we can point out that becomes all Now the story from post-war Iraq is a far better place than Saddam's Iraq.
Baghdad first fell we could do this.
Baghdad is not good. Because this all looks so different from the other side of the Atlantic (where the picture is a much simpler and more triumphalist one) I am wondering whether the whole US Administration really appreciates the imperative of I will call you to discuss getting the water and power back on, the hospitals fully working and Straw Jack DECHASSIED 9802-2=5-1 +7:51