DAYS

MEMOGATE (BECAUSE ADDING THE 'GATE' MAY WAKE PEOPLE UP)

Yesterday, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) did his best to bring the Downing Street Memos (yes, there are several now) to light on The Hill and in the conscience of the American public. Unfortunately, because the Republicons control the House, they managed to relegate Conyers' hearing to a tiny room in the basement of the Capitol Building. Seriously, they put him in a broom closet. This provided great fodder for conservative bloggers and, inexplicably, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post who makes the hearing sound like a child's tea party (Conyers responds to Milbank here). On top of that, House Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), perhaps the most childish congressman of the bunch, scheduled an unprecedented 11 consecutive floor votes to coincide with the hearing, doing everything he could to draw attention away from Conyers, um, 'tea party'.

But no matter how the GOP and the media try to paint this issue, it's not a tea party and it's not make believe. It is, by some accounts, basis for impeachment. But let's not go there. Yet. What's important here is that we now have evidence, in writing, that this administration, and its chief ally, knew its basis for war was weak and did everything it could to prove otherwise. The fact is, despite what the president and his cohorts said, war was not a "last resort" for these people – it was a choice. And those who think we should just move on, who think a discussion about how exactly Bush brought the nation to war is 'old news', apparently don't care about being used, manipulated and duped into war, a war that has resulted in 1,700+ dead American children and countless Iraqi civilians. Call me crazy, but I think that discussion is an important one to have.

Think I'm just another paranoid loon? Check out these links and decide for yourself. As one of my favorite sites, One Good Move, says, "I thought these things might be clues."

• Ok, start with this video. Then watch this one.
• Now, here's where you can find the first of the Downing Street Memos.
• Here and here are where you can find ongoing coverage of all the memos.
• Then there's this one, which says: "Since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' which would make it legal." Pretty disturbing.
• But the one that I think infuriates me the most is this one, which shows that the Bush administration didn't put much thought into what to do after the initial charge into Baghdad: "A post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise. US military plans are virtually silent on this point." (here's the actual memo)

If nothing else, this last bit of detail is why these bastards need to be held accountable. It's the reason things are so fucked up over there. They had no plan. They had no idea what they were about to thrust us into. They believed their own bullshit about being 'greeted as liberators'. They failed to understand, or plan for, the reality of their actions, and our uniformed men and women are the ones paying the price, with their lives, for this severe incompetence. Even if you think all the rest of this is just paranoid, liberal bluster, THIS is the reason these sons of bitches should pay. Accountability. Now.



This is not the first time I've posted about this, nor will it be the last.

MORE
Nation: The Latest
Hijacking Catastrophe (video)
C&L: There Is A Memo... (video)
Think Progress: All the Papers
Light of Reason: Beware the Trap of the DSM
FPIF: My brother died to satisfy Bush’s PR agenda.
Think they didn't WANT to go to war? Remember PNAC.