Remember last summer when the first Downing Street memo came out?

Remember last summer when the first Downing Street memo came out? It was actually a couple of pages of

notes from the debriefing of Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI-6, after a nice visit with his

American counterparts here in the US in July 2002, where they discussed different options for tricking

the people of the US-UK into supporting an aggressive invasion of Iraq. The main plan was to do what

they eventually did: “fix” 500 tons of lies about fake Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, call the

invasion enforcement of UN gun control laws, build up 150,000 troops and then mount a massive invasion

from Kuwait (Turkey backed out – democratically).

Had that plan not worked out – like say for example, if Joe Wilson had gone public before the war –

there was “[Option] B: Running Start“:

“Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus

belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier.”

“…initiated by an Iraqi casus belli.”

As in: Mexican soldiers “starting it” it the disputed territory, Ft. Sumpter, Remember the Maine!,

the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin and Saddam’s engraved invitation into Kuwait from US

ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie twelve years before Dearlove’s little holiday in DC.