Smoking Gun Memo Changes Context of Middle East

Smoking gun emails reveal Blair's 'deal in blood' with George Bush over Iraq war was forged a YEAR before the invasion had even started. Leaked White House memo shows former Prime Minister's support for war at summit with U.S. President in 2002. Bombshell document shows Blair preparing to act as spin doctor for Bush, who was told 'the UK will follow our lead.' Publicly, Blair still claimed to be looking for diplomatic solution – in direct contrast to email revelations. New light was shed on Bush-Blair relations by material disclosed by Hillary Clinton at the order of the U.S. courts. – Daily Mail

Dominant Social Theme: Public servants rarely lie.

Free-Market Analysis: So it is all coming out now ... the deliberate, cold-blooded planning to create a war with Iraq no matter the consequences. The evidence is contained in communications from then US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W Bush.

Just released – apparently as part of a court-mandated data-dump of Hillary Clinton's emails – one memo notes that Blair "will be with us" if the US made war in the Middle East, and that Blair would follow the lead of Bush and the Pentagon.

In Britain, where the public turned against Tony Blair long ago, the revelations are complicating the endless dithering of the Chilcot inquiry that is supposed to clarify Britain's role in the Iraq war.

From this standpoint, the memo is indeed an important one. It seems to confirm suspicions that Blair himself was determined to bring Britain into the war and confirmed to Bush that he would do what was necessary to support US actions.

Even worse, according to the UK Telegraph, "The briefing also suggested the then British Prime Minister would effectively act as a front man for the arguments for war in return for being promoted on the international stage by America."

This is surely a charge of the gravest sort and something that should terrify Tony Blair. It accuses him of trading the blood of British soldiers for personal aggrandizement advanced by the power of the Bush administration.

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