On the Downing Street Memo

It's interesting how one sees what one wants to see. This "Downing Street Memo" is a case in point. It's hard to read what this memo meant. It could mean that the intelligence was being "fixed" as in set up or contrived, but it could mean something else entirely. We don't know.

But that hasn't stopped people from making this memo the "smoking gun" to show that Bush lied, about going into Iraq.

Now, I was against the invasion of Iraq. I remember no knowing if there were weapons or not, but I did think inspections were a good idea. I wanted the UN teams to do their job a little while longer.

Was the Bush Team lying about the reasons to go to war? I dunno. There is no hard evidence saying that. I think those who view the President not simply as a bad leader, but as some malevolent force, spreading evil throughout the world think Bush did lie and sent nearly 2000 Americans and goodness only knows how many Iraqis to their deaths.

I think Bush did rush to war without really planning what to do once we took over. And he has done a poor job after the invasion. Those things he can be blamed for. But this memo is inconclusive to those of us who want facts. To those who have already made up their minds, it is the truth. But then, it seems like they would be guilty fixing the intelligence around the facts, wouldn't they?

Dean Esmay has a great take on the Memo, as do the guys over at the Yellow Line here and here.