Deep Throat II

While the DSM was ignored by the SCLM for over a month, the story just won't go away... yet more leaked British memos today -- Memos Show British Concern Over Iraq Plans:

LONDON - When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later.

President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting Saddam Hussein.

It just gets better and better (or worse and worse, depending on your perspective).

On March 25 Straw wrote a memo to Blair, saying he would have a tough time convincing the governing Labour Party that a pre-emptive strike against Iraq was legal under international law.

"If 11 September had not happened, it is doubtful that the U.S. would now be considering military action against Iraq," Straw wrote. "In addition, there has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with OBL (Osama bin Laden) and al-Qaida."

He also questioned stability in a post-Saddam Iraq: "We have also to answer the big question — what will this action achieve? There seems to be a larger hole in this than on anything."

Indeed, in retrospect, what exactly has this action achieved beyond providing a fertile training ground for more terrorists and making us more hated throughout the globe? The post-war reconstruction has been so poorly managed that conditions are now worse than they were both under Saddam and in the immediate aftermath of the initial invasion. Only Haliburton seems to have benefitted. In focusing our attention, and billions of tax dollars on Iraq, we have ignored the far more substantial and immediate threats to our national security, North Korea and Iran such that the situations there are far worse than they were in 2001-2002.

Mr. President, exactly what have we achieved? Clearly, spreading democracy in Iraq was not high on your reasons for going to war, so exactly which of your objectives have we successfully achieved?

A large majority of Americans now believe that the war in Iraq has not made us safer, but in fact the opposite.

I'm placing my money on the fact that Dubya wanted to one-up Daddy to impress Mommy and the attacks on 9/11 provided the political climate (of fear and loathing of anyone Muslim) in which to perpetrate an illegal war of aggression with the support of the majority of the population who believed its leaders when they made mendacious claims of ties between Saddam and al Qaeda.

If sending a nation to war for the purposes of avenging a personal vendetta is not an impeachable offense, I don't know what is. Heck, if lying about getting a bj in the Oval Office is impeachable, then certainly cherry-picking flimsy intellegence findings and exaggerating their potential consequences should be right up there. For that matter, the manner in which the intellegence community was completely and utterly abused for their "massive intellegence failures" should in and of itself be impeachable. This administration has done more to undermine our national security than any before it.

Whom ever it is that is leaking these memos is doing both his(her) country and ours a great service. Thank you!