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http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6063Nobody wants to go to war. We trust our leaders to shed blood in our name only when absolutely necessary. Two years after the start of the Iraq War, on March 20, 2003, Americans are just learning that our government was dead set on taking our nation to war, even while it claimed to be pursuing diplomacy.
The Downing Street Memo, recently leaked, reveals that President George W. Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in summer 2002 and determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policies, "fixed" the intelligence and facts relevent to WMD.
What has come to be known as the Downing Street "Memo" is actually a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister’s meeting on July 23, 2002. This meeting was held a full 8 months PRIOR to the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The Times of London printed the text of this document on Sunday, May 1, 2005. When asked about the document’s validity, "British officials did not dispute the document’s authenticity."
The contents of the memo are shocking. The minutes detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was manipulated to sell the case for war to the American public; and how all the talk of "war as a last resort" was mere hollow pretense.
Regardless of politics, all Americans should ask themselves: Was I misled? Did President Bush tell me the truth when he said he would not take us to war unless absolutely necessary?