Newly released documents reveal that the United States was warned that invading Iraq without a second UN Security Council resolution could cost Tony Blair his premiership. David Manning, Blair's foreign policy adviser, told Condoleezza Rice, then US national security adviser: 'The US must not promote regime change in Baghdad at the price of regime change in London.'
The meeting took place before Blair visited President George W. Bush at Camp David on 31 January 2003, two months before the Iraq invasion. In a briefing note to Blair, Manning said a second resolution was 'politically essential for the UK and almost certainly legally essential as well.' He also urged delaying any invasion until the end of March.
In a separate memo marked 'secret – strictly personal, very sensitive,' Manning wrote that he told Rice: 'A second resolution is a political necessity for you domestically. Without it, you would not secure cabinet and parliamentary support for military action. She must understand that you could be forced from office if you tried.'
The documents also show that the UK's Washington ambassador, Christopher Meyer, described Bush's message on Iraq as 'messianic' and said it was now 'politically impossible' for Bush to back down from war 'absent Saddam's surrender or disappearance from the scene.' Meyer added that Bush saw his mission as 'ridding the world of evil-doers.'
Ultimately, the US and UK abandoned efforts to secure a second resolution, claiming France would never agree. The Ministry of Defence warned that 'the loosening of Saddam's grip on power may give rise to significant levels of internecine violence,' a warning later highlighted by the Chilcot report as having been ignored.
