Another factor influencing US decision-making relating to Iraq was that, in his second term, the Monica Lewinski scandal had broken and Clinton was facing impeachment. Thus, senior US officials worked closely with Richard Butler, the head of the UN inspections commission, in December 1998, to use his doctored report about Iraq’s non-cooperation as an excuse to bomb the country just when impeachment proceedings were to commence, so that the proceedings would be postponed. Iraq was bombed during ‘Operation Desert Fox’ for four days (17–20 December 1998), but the House vote still went against
...more
