The Downing Street memos tell us who, what, when and how the Iraq war planning was going.
Namely, the US was persuading the UK to sign on. The US had already begun covert military action and the US was hoping to launch a formal, public invasion by January of 2003.
"the US had already begun 'spikes of activity'"
"the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections."
What was missing was the "why". Why was Bush so insistent on war? The Downing Street memos speculated that:
"...Bush would do well to de-personalise the objective."
Bush may have mistakenly provided the answer in 1999. Said Bush:
"One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
Bush has repeatedly said war was a last resort. Follow the link below for more information.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050620/why_george_went_to_war.php