I finally got round to reading yesterday's Woodward excerpt on the Bush-Blair special relationship, and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed (though not terribly surprised, given the book's sourcing) that it does nothing to address what is, for me, perhaps the central mystery of the Iraq War: Why was the British PM so relentlessly gung-ho about this whole enterprise? What did he know, or think he knew, that we didn't -- and still don't -- about Saddam, the Americans, WMD ... whatever?

I've suspected for a long time now that we'll never know the real story of this war until we have gotten a satisfactory answer to that question -- and it looks like we still haven't.

[Full disclosure: I once inhabited a cubicle at a firm that did a little work with New Labour on communications issues. It was a long time ago, and gives my opinions in this area no additional credibility or heft.]

POSTSCRIPT: In fairness, it was an excerpt. Maybe there's more in the book.

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