How Bush Snared Blair

The Chilterns lie northwest of London, a vista of sweeping grasslands, honeysuckle-draped cottages and the crack of cricket bats on plush village greens. Church bells ring out across the leafy stillness, adding an almost mystical aura to the scene’s unearthly beauty.
Unobtrusively tucked into the chalk hills is Chequers, the 16th century mansion that serves as the official country residence of Britain’s Prime Minister. While Chequers is traditionally used as a weekend getaway, Tony Blair and his staff traveled there on Tuesday, April 2, 2002 for an in-depth and hard-edged debate about Iraq. Since Bush first raised the prospects months before that the United States would hit Iraq, Blair had cajoled and reasoned with the president in an attempt to guide American policy. But the march toward war had continued.
Now, the Prime Minister was scheduled to meet with Bush at the Crawford ranch in three days, and it would be his best opportunity to hammer out a strategy for bending the President’s will a bit closer to his own—if only he could figure out how to do it.
The British officials gathered at ten that morning on the first floor in the Long Gallery, and Blair described his predicament. “I believe, that Bush is in the same position I am,” he said. “It would be great to get rid of Saddam, but can it be done without terrible unforeseen consequences?”
British intelligence presented an assessment of the situation in Iraq. The state of its military forces was adequate, the opposition to Saddam was feeble, and Saddam himself—well, he was a maniac. Those elements made a combustible and unpredictable mix. The consequences of an American-led invasion were anybody’s guess...

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