George Bush thought of the Iraq War as a ‘mission from God’, according to a top US official who tried to persuade Tony Blair to give the president a ‘dose of reality’.
Newly released UK government files show Richard Armitage, who served as Bush’s deputy secretary of state for most of his first administration, made the comments to then-British ambassador Sir David Manning.
Armitage urged Blair to use his relationship with the president to persuade him to back a ‘political process’ to restore order in the Middle Eastern country following the 2003 invasion.
Bush had previously demanded US forces ‘kick ass’ as the scale of Iraqi resistance became clear, Armitage said.
The documents, released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, also show the official dismissing a US commander’s claims that he could quash an uprising in the city of Fallujah within days as ‘bullshit’.
Less than one year after Bush notoriously declared ‘mission accomplished’ after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the offensive in Fallujah would turn into one of the biggest debacles of the Iraq campaign.
With much of the country in the grip of a violent insurgency, US troops launched Operation Vigilant Resolve to regain control of the city.
However, their tactics and the increasing number of civilian deaths horrified members of the coalition set up to control the country after Saddam’s overthrow.
During his meeting with Sir David in April 2004, Armitage – deputy to secretary of state Colin Powell – said Bush initially ‘wanted to kick ass’ in response.
But the president was warned this could mean the collapse of the coalition, resulting in even greater turmoil.
Sir David reported: ‘Faced with this “dose of reality”, Bush backed off.’
‘Rich summed it all up by saying that Bush still thought he was on some sort of a mission from God, but that recent events had made him “rather more sober”,’ he added.
In the meeting, the deputy secretary of state painted a complicated picture of a worsening situation with no easy way out.
It was ‘inevitable’ that more troops would need to be sent in to regain a semblance of control, he said, but such a move would be ‘politically ugly’ for Bush.
The only ‘exit strategy’ for the US, according to Armitage, came in the form of the UN and its envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Sir David noted: ‘Rich said it followed that he hoped the prime minister would urge Bush to deal with Fallujah as part of a carefully judged political process, and that he would also underline the critical importance for all of us of Brahimi and the UN.’
Two weeks later, following the deaths of 27 American troops, around 200 insurgents and some 600 Iraqi civilians, the offensive was called off.
Fallujah was finally captured by coalition forces in November 2004, and US forces remained in Iraq until 2011.
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