The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
and then
take our time to see whether we could build up the case against
Iraq or
87.
Mr Blair added
that there was very wide international support for a careful
and
considered
US approach. It was sometimes frustrating to work with a coalition,
but
its support
was a crucial investment.
88.
Citing the US
National Security Council’s record of the meeting
between
President Bush
and Mr Blair, the 9/11 Commission wrote:
“When Blair
asked about Iraq, the President replied that Iraq was not the
immediate
problem.
Some members of his administration, he commented, had expressed
a
different
view, but he was the one responsible for making the
decisions.”46
89.
Mr Campbell
wrote in his diaries that President Bush had said the focus was
on
Usama Bin
Laden and the Taliban: “But he also talked about how they could go
after
90.
Mr Jonathan
Powell, Mr Blair’s Chief of Staff, told the Inquiry that President
Bush
had agreed:
“the focus would be on Afghanistan and Al Qaida”.48
91.
Sir
Christopher Meyer, British Ambassador to the United States from
2001 to
February
2003, told the Inquiry that Mr Blair had sent a message to
President Bush:
“… setting
out his views on what needed to be done and he argued very strongly
for
a
laser-like focus on Al Qaida and Afghanistan. By the time he got to
Washington …
the door
was already open. He didn’t have to argue the
case.”49
92.
In a speech
to Congress, President Bush set out the US determination to
fight
a war
against terrorism by every means at its disposal.
93.
That
included an ultimatum to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to give
up the
leaders of
Al Qaida and close its training camps.
94.
Addressing the
US Congress on 20 September, President Bush stated that the
US
had “no
truer friend than Great Britain” and thanked Mr Blair for crossing
the “ocean to
show his
unity of purpose”.50
45
Letter
Manning to McDonald, 20 September 2001, ‘Prime Minister’s Visit to
Washington on
20 September:
Dinner with President Bush’.
46
Final
Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the
United States.
The 9/11
Commission Report. Norton. Page
336.
47
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to Iraq.
Hutchinson, 2012.
48
Public
hearing, 18 January 2010, page 16.
49
Public
hearing, 26 November 2009, page 22.
50
The White
House, 20 September 2001, Address to
a Joint Session of Congress and the American
People.
328