NOT UNILATERAL ENOUGH:

Blair knew US had no post-war plan for Iraq (Nicholas Watt, June 17, 2007, The Observer)

Condoleezza Rice, then Bush's national security adviser, confirms that the President offered Blair a way out. Bush told Blair: 'Perhaps there's some other way that Britain can be involved.' Blair replied: 'No, I'm with you.'

The Brits in particular have tended to portray George Bush as indebted to Tony Blair for his support in the WoT. But the opposite is the case. The President had little interest in getting a new UN resolution for finishing the Iraq War, but allowed Mr. Blair and Colin Powell to pursue one for their own political and emotional reasons. That was the point at which they settled upon using WMD as the selling point for other nations and ended up causing the war party so much later trouble. There have been prior accounts of the fact that when the President realized how much difficulty Mr. Blair was having getting his own party to support the war he told him the Brits needn't join the fight. Of course, this storyline--of a self-sufficient W and a weak Blair and Powell--doesn't play well with critics of the President so it only tends to surface every once in awhile.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 17, 2007 7:36 AM