Downing Street Memo

This big secret memo...ooooh. Before we get all excited about how Bush "fixed" the intelligence, let us make sure that we know what fixed meant in English parlance:


USATODAY.com: "Robin Niblett of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, says it would be easy for Americans to misunderstand the reference to intelligence being “fixed around” Iraq policy. “ ‘Fixed around' in British English means ‘bolted on' rather than altered to fit the policy,” he says.

Ombudsmen at both The New York Times and The Washington Post have been critical of their newspapers for not covering the story more aggressively.

USA TODAY chose not to publish anything about the memo before today for several reasons, says Jim Cox, the newspaper's senior assignment editor for foreign news. “We could not obtain the memo or a copy of it from a reliable source,” Cox says. “There was no explicit confirmation of its authenticity from (Blair's office). And it was disclosed four days before the British elections, raising concerns about the timing.”"


I think that is valid. Also, I was ready to attack pretty much anywhere in the middle east based on 9/11. People think Afganistan was enough, but is it not clear that the real heart of the Islamic Facism lies in the mideast? Is it not clear that we are fighting the enemy of the Future now, there, in Iraq.

Personally I wish we'd get out now, and I do think they've planned miserably for this insurgancy. It seems still to be a better place than before, and yes, I would have us clean up all the worlds dictators. We could do it without sacrifice if we did it right....