Smoke and mirrors

Think Progress � Breaking: Bush-Blair Questioned on Downing Street Memo (emphasis mine):

BUSH: Well, you know, I read, kind of, the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I’m not sure who they dropped it out is, but I’m not suggesting that you all dropped it out there.

And this is the leader of the free world? He "kind of" read a "characterization" of the memo. (Interpretation: my Mommy read it to me. There were big words in it that I didn't understand.) He goes on to compose what has to be the most disjoint sentence in history. "I'm not sure who they dropped it out is...". WTF?

(LAUGHTER)

And somebody said, Well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There’s nothing farther from the truth.

My conversations with the prime minister was how could we do this peacefully, what could we do.

Yeah, right... peacefully. Funny, that isn't at all what the minutes of the meeting say.

And this meeting, evidently it took place in London, happened before we even went to the United Nations – or I went to the United Nations.

And so it’s – look, both of us didn’t want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. That’s the last option.

Really? Sure, this all happened before we went to the U.N., but what's that got to do with it. It also happened before Bush went to Congress to seek congressional approval. That's the whole frickin' point! True, the meeting took place in London (um... Mr. President... that's where Downing Street is, apparently) but it was a Blair cabinet meeting in which his top spook was reporting back on meetings he had in Warshington D.C.. You'd think that some uppity reporter would have asked an appropriate follow-up basically saying: "that's all well and good Mr. President, but you haven't answered the question". (note, the actual question was as follows:

QUESTION: On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street Memo from July, 2002, says “Intelligence and facts remain fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military actions.”

Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

Preznit Doofus continues with his bogus, lame-ass response:

The consequences of committing the military are very difficult. You know, one of the hardest things I do as the president is to try to comfort families who’ve lost a loved one in combat.

It's hard work! Yeah, yeah, yeah, some kid is dead or maimed for life, but it's hard work to console the family members who will probably be collecting food stamps now that their major bread winner is dead. Dubya continues:

It’s the last option that the president must have, and it’s the last option I know my friend had as well.

And so we worked hard to see if we could figure how to do this peacefully, to put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, so the world speaks. And he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

Again, nothing to do with the question which was that the memo strongly suggests that the U.K.'s top spook came back from D.C. to report to Blair that the Bushistas had already decided that military action was needed to oust Saddam and that they were "fixing facts" around the policy. All this nonsense about the meeting being before the U.S. went to the U.N. is so much smoke and mirrors. Note that Bush never said that the "facts" were not being "fixed". Note also that all of the "evidence" that Colin Powell presented to the U.N. in making the case for resolution 1441 has subsequently been debunked. Gee, you'd think a reporter would have a follow-up that basically called a spade a spade by saying: "with all due respect Mr. President, the 'facts' that were presented to the U.N. by Sec'y Powell were, well... they were proven to be completely wrong in what has since been characterized as a 'massive intellegence failure'. That sure seems to support the contention of the memo that 'facts' were being "fixed" around the policy, doesn't it?"

Idiots.