DSM Update: General Admits to Secret Air War

God. It's like fucking Vietnam all over again. You may recall that the Downing Street Memo referred to "spikes of activity" on the part of US and British armed forces, designed to provoke Saddam Hussein into war. Well, according to the commander of the Allied Forces, those "spikes" were the result of a secret air war being waged against Iraq nine months before the war began. The Sunday Times reports:

Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 ?carefully selected targets? before the war officially started. [...]

If those raids exceeded the need to maintain security in the no-fly zones of southern and northern Iraq, they would leave President George W Bush and Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they had acted illegally.

Gee, ya think? The evidence is mounting up, people, and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop any time soon. I agree with Shakes Sis: at this point, the only real question is: Do you want to know?