Prescott admits second Gulf War a done deal

[Onceapilot]

BBC reports that Lord Prescott admits the second Gulf War was pre planned.

[Courtney Mil]

Well, it didn't just happen, did it?

[CoffmanStarter]

Prescott's IQ astounds me :ugh:

[Wander00]

Presciott, what IQ?

[CoffmanStarter]

Got to be at least 2 to waddle on two legs ... Nah ... He works off pure reflex :}

[Two's in]

I don't mind the admission that it was planned, as long as they don't claim it was planned well.

[BEagle]

In Sep 2002, the invasion was clearly decided when the despicable Bliar went to lick GeeDubya's backside at Camp David....

Prescott isn't bright enough to be devious, he speaks his mind. Unlike the oleaginous Bliar, about whom Prescott said, when justifying his support for Bliar:

"But I tell you something that persuaded me. You know Bush was quite prepared to have a plan for Israel and the whole problem in regard to Palestine and he promised.

"And, therefore, that plan was something."

But Lord Prescott said the plan "fell apart as it often does in American politics because the influence domestically is too great".

He said that, despite these factors, "at the end of the day, Tony Blair obviously said to himself, 'I've promised to do this and I'm going to do it' - and that's today's consequences".


At the Iraq inquiry, Prescott described Cheney as being determined to invade Iraq which he viewed as 'unfinished business' and complained of Cheney that "you can't convince him of anything". He also warned Bliar:

"They're going to go in without you; whether you come with them or not, it doesn't matter to the Americans - they're getting ready".

Is the world better off without Saddam Hussein? Yes, I believe so.

Was the invasion of Iraq justfied in 2003? No, I don't believe it was.

More from the BBC:

Meanwhile, sources close to Foreign Secretary Mr Hague have confirmed that he has written to cabinet ministers reminding them of government policy not to comment on the justification or otherwise for the Iraq war until after the Chilcot Inquiry reports.

The Guardian reports that the letter has angered Lib Dem ministers whose party has always considered it an illegal war started by Mr Blair.

One Whitehall source said what Mr Hague had done "is write to cabinet ministers reminding them of government policy that we should not prejudice the Chilcot Inquiry."

Sir John Chilcot has said the report into his inquiry, which featured 18 months of public hearings between 2009 and early 2011, will not be published before the middle of this year at the earliest.

In his last update, in July 2012, Sir John said the inquiry had made "extensive progress" in drafting its report - expected to be about a million words long - but that the inquiry was "unprecedented" in scope and the issues were "complex".


:hmm:

[thunderbird7]

Is the world better off without Saddam Hussein? Yes, I believe so.

Was the invasion of Iraq justfied in 2003? No, I don't believe it was.

And the third & fourth questions:

Did it improve stability in the region? Initially, disastrously No! But now, yes.

Did it make Britain a safer place? No! It stirred up a hornets nest.

[Lima Juliet]

Of course it was planned before. I helped nearly 12 months earlier. But it was not authorised to go ahead until much closer to the time (late 2002/early 2003). It was a contigency plan for if and when Hans Blix and his Team had exhausted all options.

Why is it so earth shattering to reveal that?

LJ

PS. I agree, Prezzer has a revers Midas touch (what he had on Bliar to be able to stay in favour - that I would love to know).

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

LJ - the shockmeisters are implying that by Two-jags saying pre-planned, he meant the Invasion was pre-decided.
They may have a point this time.

[Wensleydale]

One hopes that there are many points around the globe that have pre-planned military action - just in case. God help us all if contingencies are not in place and we have to act on the fly!

[500N]

Central Command would have written a couple of invasion scenarios for Iraq
within a couple of years of the end of the first Gulf War, along wit a whole load
of updates to others.

Weren't Central Command doing a simulated exercise based
on Iran at the time Saddam invaded Kuwait ?

[Biggus]

Contingency plans are nothing new - I recently watched a TV programme on Channel 5 about "Plan Red", a late 20s/early 30s US plan for a possible war against the British Empire! As part of the plan the US intended to invade and seize Canada.



As someone has already said, the issue is not whether it was pre-planned, I'd be surprised if it wasn't, the issue is whether it was pre-determined/pre-decided and at what point the decision to "go"was actually made - as opposed to when it was said to have been made.