I suspect that there were a number of the military, diplomats and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic determined to find a way of finishing the unfinished job of the First Gulf War.
WMD became a tool to do the the job and then a red herring. Extinguishing Saddam was always the key objective but because this could never be overtly discussed neither could the post-overthrow plan be discussed.
The venture was doomed from the start and the aftermath inevitable. Having said that those deep seated critics never believed that Iraq in 2010 would be the nation that it is. It is imperfect but the lives of its people improve by the month and it is no worse a democracy than dozens of other democracies.
A fair judgment can be made on Iraq in another 10 years.
Everybody I worked with at the time (In the MoD, DoD) knew we were going in to finish the job and kill off the idiot. We couldn’t understand the need for the spin on the 45 mins etc. apart from the fact that we don’t like to be seen as over-throwers. So, lies were made up in order to sell to a delicate and PC brainwashed public. If we had Churchill standing up and demanding the head of Sad Huss then it would have been fine.
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