Overview

• Sir Christopher Meyer warned London that Bush’s State of the Union address had foreclosed diplomatic options and made a retreat politically impossible without Saddam’s surrender.
• Sir David Manning told Condoleezza Rice that invading Iraq without a second UN resolution risked ‘regime change in London’ for Tony Blair.
• British envoys argued a second Security Council resolution was not only legally essential but also critical for securing parliamentary and public support.
• Diplomatic cables portray Bush’s motives as driven by a Manichean worldview and a belief in a divine mission to topple Saddam Hussein.
• A threatened French veto led Washington and London to abandon efforts for new UN authorization and proceed with the invasion in March 2003.