In his new book, former Secretary of State Colin Powell provides what may be the most authoritative confirmation yet that there was never a considered debate in the George W Bush White House about whether going to war in Iraq was really a good idea.

In a chapter discussing what he calls his 'infamous' February 2003 speech to the United Nations where he authoritatively presented what was later exposed as gross misinformation about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Powell notes that by that time, war 'was approaching'.