TPM: Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’

Josh Marshall cites the smoking gun published by the Times of London showing the full extent of the hypocracy of Bush's run up to the Iraq war. Old news? Sure. Scandalous? Incredible? Sure. Worse, its just SOP for Bush. Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’:

"MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal."