I don't mean to say I told you so, but...(Stephen M. Walt)

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Probably the most controversial claim in my work with John Mearsheimer on the Israel lobby is our argument that it played a key role in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Even some readers who were generally sympathetic to our overall position found that claim hard to accept, and some left-wing critics accused us of letting Bush and Cheney off the hook or of ignoring the importance of other interests, especially oil. Of course, Israel's defenders in the lobby took issue even more strenuously, usually by mischaracterizing our arguments and ignoring most (if not all) of the evidence we presented.

So I hope readers will forgive me if I indulge today in a bit of self-promotion, or more precisely, self-defense. This week, yet another piece of evidence surfaced that suggests we were right all along (HT to Mehdi Hasan at the New Statesman and J. Glatzer at Mondoweiss). In his testimony to the Iraq war commission in the U.K., former Prime Minister Tony Blair offered the following account of his discussions with Bush in Crawford, Texas in April 2002. Blair reveals that concerns about Israel were part of the equation and that Israel officials were involved in those discussions.

Take it away, Tony:

As I recall that discussion, it was less to do with specifics about what we were going to do on Iraq or, indeed, the Middle East, because the Israel issue was a big, big issue at the time. I think, in fact, I remember, actually, there may have been conversations that we had even with Israelis, the two of us, whilst we were there. So that was a major part of all this."

Notice that Blair is not saying that Israel dreamed up the idea of attacking Iraq or that Bush was bent on war solely to benefit Israel or even to appease the Israel lobby here at home. But Blair is acknowledging that concerns about Israel were part of the equation, and that the Israeli government was being actively consulted in the planning for the war.

Blair's comments fit neatly with the argument we make about the lobby and Iraq. Specifically, Professor Mearsheimer and I made it clear in our article and especially in our book that the idea of invading Iraq originated in the United States with the neoconservatives, and not with the Israeli government. But as the neoconservative pundit Max Boot once put it, steadfast support for Israel is "a key tenet of neoconservatism." Prominent neo-conservatives occupied important positions in the Bush administration, and in the aftermath of 9/11, they played a major role in persuading Bush and Cheney to back a war against Iraq, which they had been advocating since the late 1990s. We also pointed out that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli officials were initially skeptical of this scheme, because they wanted the U.S. to focus on Iran, not Iraq. However, they became enthusiastic supporters of the idea of invading Iraq once the Bush administration made it clear to them that Iraq was just the first step in a broader campaign of "regional transformation" that would eventually include Iran."

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[azurnoir]

1. Hmmm I remember being told how Israel never ever

advocated the war Iraq but rather felt Iran was the bigger threat but as this reveals it was a package deal which sounds about right to me

Thank you for posting:thumbsup:

[LeftishBrit]

2. Tony wanted a war! For the sake of his own religious lunacy and outdated imperialism

He may have used Israel as an excuse for some of it, but let us not leave darling Tony off the hook for a minute. He was, as is now clear, more than just a 'poodle'; he wanted war as much as anyone, and unfortunately found others (Bush and Cheney) with whom he could form an alliance.

Let's not blame Israel for the existence and disastrous policies of this slimy religious terrorist who should be at the Hague!

[shaayecanaan]

3. I think Tony Blair would like to hang his hat on anything at this stage...

he attempted to justify the Iraq war on the basis of WMD, and then when that fell through tried to sell the war as a humanitarian intervention. No doubt he would try to sell it as improving Israel's security if he could.

I do not doubt that Israel barracked strongly for the war in the same sense that Britain pushed hard for the first Iraq war and Australia lobbied the Americans very strongly to go to war in Vietnam. But in all three cases it was American political currents that largely determined the course for war.