158. The Road to Iraq: George Bush's Unstoppable War (Ep 6)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

Was Iraq WMD one of history’s biggest intelligence failures? Why couldn’t Saddam Hussein prove he has destroyed his weapons of mass destruction? And what is the legacy of the Iraq War in the Middle East? Listen as David and Gordon conclude their investigation into Iraq WMD and analyse what has been learnt from the decision to go to war with Iraq. ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠. ------------------- Email: ⁠⁠therestisclassified@goalhanger.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified⁠ Video Editor: Joe Pettit Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com. Inspectors are on the ground hunting for rocks weapons of mass destruction using tip-offs from
0:31.2	MI6 and CIA.
0:33.8	But will they find anything to support the drive for war?
0:38.1	Well, welcome to the rest is classified.
0:39.6	I'm David McCloskey.
0:40.9	And I'm Gordon Carrera.
0:42.0	This is the final episode of this six-part series where we are going to find the WMD.
0:47.9	The WMD have just sort of befuddled commentators, intelligence analysts, politicians for a generation,
0:56.9	we are going to reveal all at the end of this episode.
1:00.6	Importantly, you have to stay for the entire episode.
1:03.0	We're not going to tell you right now, but we're going to get there.
1:07.2	But yes, we've got to nearly the end of this story.
1:11.7	We've been looking at how the UK and US have built this case of WMD as the justification for war using some,
1:18.6	it's fair to say, dodgy, if that's not too British a term, intelligence like kerbball.
1:24.1	But the question is, will the international inspectors be able to uncover the truth?
1:29.3	I had forgotten this part of the story that there actually were inspectors who got into
1:34.2	Iraq just before the war. We had talked in an earlier episode about how Tony Blair and Colin
1:39.7	Powell and others had eventually persuaded George W. Bush to go down what was called the UN route.
1:46.4	And harder line advisors like Dick Cheney had not wanted to bother with this, but probably in part to get the Brits to go along with this,
1:58.2	George W. Bush decides to go to the UN, and on November the 8th of 2002, the
	...

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