Monday, June 20, 2005
The Downing Street Memo: Real But Irrelevant
My skepticism about the DSM has turned; particularly, the silence of the Blair government on the matter speaks volumes to me, as does the item below: Power Line has a good argument for the authenticity of the Downing Street memo, as well as its irrelevance.
Here's John Hinderaker:
FURTHER UPDATE: Bush and Blair were asked about the DSM during their joint press conference on June 7. Blair seemed to admit the genuineness of the memo:
Q. Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?
PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.
That seems pretty conclusive, doesn't it? "That memorandum" was written before the U.S. and U.K. went to the U.N. If "that memorandum" was a fraud, wouldn't have this been an appropriate time to mention it?
Case closed.
l
Here's John Hinderaker:
FURTHER UPDATE: Bush and Blair were asked about the DSM during their joint press conference on June 7. Blair seemed to admit the genuineness of the memo:
Q. Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?
PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.
That seems pretty conclusive, doesn't it? "That memorandum" was written before the U.S. and U.K. went to the U.N. If "that memorandum" was a fraud, wouldn't have this been an appropriate time to mention it?
Case closed.
l
