We Are Many Page #2

and, of course, it wasn't going to take

much to defeat the Taliban.

It wasn't much of a war, and it wasn't said,

but the sense was there wasn't

much glory in it, either.

It didn't somehow answer 9/11,

and that's when the talk of phase two began.

My fellow Americans, let's roll.

Bush came up with his extraordinary

speech in January 2002.

Our war against terror is only beginning.

Iraq continues to flaunt

its hostility toward America

and to support terror.

States like these and their terrorist allies

constitute an axis of evil.

We wanted connection with 9/11,

and we pressed that and pressed that

and pressed that

until we lied to the American people.

I mean, we had something like 51 to 60

percent of the American people

believing that Saddam Hussein

was connected with 9/11.

From then on we're building up

towards a war with Iraq,

and we now know how closely involved

the British Government was with this.

But to allow weapons of mass destruction

to be developed by a state like Iraq,

without let or hindrance,

would be grossly to ignore

the lessons of September 11th,

and we will not do it.

We were sharing intelligence.

We were sharing preparations

for the kind of marketing campaign

we'd do if we decided to go to war.

The weapons of mass destruction

was an important thing

to hold up to the public,

and I'm not saying

that they were in bad faith,

but they had many other reasons

that pushed them about,

and about which they didn't talk.

8:
00. The first element

of the government's strategy

for winning over the doubters was released.

MPs had three and a half hours

to read the dossier.

This dossier is based on the work

of the British Joint Intelligence Committee.

It is extensive, detailed and authoritative.

It concludes that Iraq has chemical

and biological weapons.

That Saddam has continued to produce them.

That he has existing

and active military plans

for the use of chemical

and biological weapons,

which could be activated within 45 minutes,

including against his own Shia population.

They were 100 percent sure

that there were weapons of mass destruction.

They had zero percent of knowledge

where they were.

I felt I knew what had happened

in the creation of an interior group

of knowing people.

So what was going on

in the corridors of power was,

"I've been there."

"I've been to the Secret Service

headquarters."

"I've seen the papers."

"If you'd seen what I've seen,

you'd know how to go

through those corridors."

So there was the creation

of a bunch of insiders

who were also, in a sense,

distributing the same lie.

The intelligence was never there.

I remember the dodgy dossier.

I remember the front page

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes