The Downing Street Memo

I belately read the Downing Street Memo tonight. I had heard a lot about its effect on the elections in Britain, and that it wasn't making much of an impact over here, but I hadn't heard much about what was actually in it, which is pretty damning as it turns out. If you're reading this and you haven't read the memo yet, go read it. It is only about a page long.

And I have an idea about why U.S. newspapers aren't covering it. I think it might be because newspaper editors--who are generally very well-informed people, already were convinced that President Bush had decided to go to war well in advance of any debate in this country, and that WMD were a pretense all along. That is, I think, the impression any well informed person would make--even someone who supported the war on humanitarian or democratic-domino-theory grounds. So these editors read the memo or heard about the memo and said, what's the big deal?

Well, it is a big deal, since of course Bush still denies he mislead us about WMD and the reason for going to war just as he denies making any mistakes, or even that the war is going badly.

As the saying goes, "Bush lied, people died."