“Senior figures in the intelligence community and across Whitehall briefed the former international development secretary Clare Short that Tony Blair had made a secret agreement last summer with George Bush to invade Iraq in February or March, she claimed yesterday.

In damning evidence to the foreign affairs select committee, Ms Short refused to identify the three figures, but she cited their authority for making her claim that Mr Blair had actively deceived the cabinet and the country in persuading them of the need to go to war.” Guardian/UK This, to hearken back to Michael Kinsley’s comments about the search for the Weapons of Mass Distraction, is a more profound reason the question of whether we were lied to on that score is irrelevant. The real deceit was much more pervasive — the entire administration charade about deciding whether to go to war was a waltz around a foregone conclusion.