Downing Street Memo

Alright, folks, I have to go political on you today.

I was reading last night about the "Downing Street Memo". I'd heard of it earlier but hadn't really taken the time to look into this horrific document. For those unfamiliar, this is a British Memo delivered to Tony Blair by one of his Chief Intelligence officers on July 23, 2002 - almost a full year before we began our military campaign in Iraq on March 20, 2003. The memo states that: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Re-read that: ". . . the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Holy Shit!

Look, I'll be the first to tell you I've always had mixed feeling about our invasion of Iraq. While I agree Hussein was a nutcase who should be killed I never liked the idea of using American soldiers to get the job done (though I always said it should have been done back during the Gulf War, and Pres. Bush Sr. screwed that up!) Being naturally suspicious of political leaders (I grew up in the Watergate era, after all!) I was never convinced that the reasons the White House gave about WMD's, etc. were sufficient to the response we launched. When the intelligence proved out as so much bullshit, I wasn't buying the President's excuse that he was "misled" by his people and that the war was a good thing anyway because we were bringing freedom to Iraq. Sorry, but I do not believe that freedom can be given to a people. It has to be earned -with their own blood- or they'll never value it enough to keep it.

The President may have lied to Congress and lied to the people of this nation to force us into a war he wanted for personal reasons. I won't go into what I think those reasons were (though if you look at the money he and his supporters are making off the inflated oil prices and things like the Halliburton contracts . . .) but the reasons don't matter. What matters is that the leader of this nation may have violated the law and embroiled us in a war that has cost the lives of 1,683 U.S. soldiers as of this writing. What matters is that no one has been able to debunk this memo, or it's contents, and the U.S. media, and government, ARE DOING NOTHING TO INVESTIGATE THE ISSUE!! Why the hell are the news and media outlets not jumping all over this story? Christ, when Bill Clinton was suspected of getting a hummer from an aide they were like sharks in blood filled water, but for something this serious? Not a friggin' word! There have only been two or three stories run on the memo as minor stories in the U.S. newspapers and I haven't heard a thing about it on broadcast news, not even CNN!

Why is this not being investigated? Why is congress not screaming over this? I'm frightened by the thought of just how much power this administration has if they are effectively shutting down any reference to such a blatant crime. If the President and his staff did in fact alter the intelligence information given to Congress and the public then they need to face Impeachment and criminal charges! I don't have any way to determine the truth of this memo but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that if no one has been able to question the truth of it after all this time then there needs to be an investigation into the behavior of the man we elected to uphold and protect the laws of this nation!

Don't misunderstand me folks, I'm not one of those rabid Bush-bashers (though I'm not a fan either. Didn't vote for him either time). He's the President of this nation and I've always given him my respect because of the office he holds. Nor am I a peace-freak who opposes war for any reason. There are times and situations when military force is the only avaialable option and I fully support its use. You will find no greater proponent of the Armed Forces of this nation than me: I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the men and women who put on a uniform and pick up a weapon to protect my ass! I am in NO WAY questioning the soldiers out there who are doing nothing but their duty, and doing it remarkably well. But duty -ours duty as citizens- compels us to ask why one man should have the ability to sentence 1,600 +/- soldiers to die for no other reason than: he wanted them to. The power of the Executive Branch was limited in the Constituion for very good reasons, one of which was to avoid exactly this situation. If President Bush intentionally violate those limits, we need to know it! We need that information so we -as a nation- can decide whether we want any more of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children dying on foreign soil because our leaders fixed their intelligence to meet their personal desires. This needs more investigation!

I don't know how to help move such an investigation along, but maybe someone out there does. This little blog is certainly not going to have any effect but if you're reading this, please bring the "Downing Street Memo" to the attention of everyone you can. Maybe one of them can do something to help shed some light on this situation.

Alright, I'm done prostelytizing now.


Later!