by David Michael Green
The Downing Street Memo is the gift that just keeps on giving. And well it should. It is the smoking gun which proves
that the gravest possible crime was committed by the Bush administration, and among its victims were the
American people.
I am more hopeful about American politics than I have been in a long time, though still cautious. For nearly five years
now, the Bush administration has gotten away with murder - literally and figuratively - with seemingly immutable
impunity, always defying the laws of political gravity, at least as they are known in this universe. So I've come to be
tentative and rather pessimistic about the possibilities of ending this national nightmare of reaction, thievery and
militarism, and bringing these criminals to justice.
But Downing Street seems to have legs, and I feel a critical mass building now. It is different this time, in part,
because this is the first true insider smoking gun, set down in black and white. But it is also different, in part,
because the context has changed. Unlike previous revelations, from the Clarke or O'Neill (Suskind) books, for
example, the evidence this time comes against the background of growing discontent at home with the disaster of
Iraq, and the diminished credibility of a president and the movement of regressive politics he leads.
Generally content or frightened people will forgive a lot, sometimes even murderous lies of this magnitude. But angry,
deceived people will not. Bush has built himself a credibility gap of which Lyndon Johnson could be proud, which
probably accounts more than anything for his inability to sell the bundle of Social Security deceits he's been
peddling. He said he was going to get Osama 'dead or alive'. He didn't. He said his tax scheme would revive the
economy. It didn't. He said it wouldn't add to the national debt. Boy, did it.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0607-26.htmrather long article, well worth the time to read.
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