Bush/Blair questioned on minutes

[FreedomAngel82]

I'm sorry if someone else has posted this here.

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=1045

<QUESTION: On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street Memo from July,
2002, says "Intelligence and facts remain fixed around the policy of
removing Saddam through military actions."

Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you
respond?

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 change 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.

But, all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look
for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict.

As it happened, we weren't able to do that because, as I think was
very clear, there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to
change the way that he worked or the way that he acted.

BUSH: Well, you know, I read, kind of, the characterizations of the
memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his
race. I'm not sure who they dropped it out is, but I'm not
suggesting that you all dropped it out there.

(LAUGHTER)>

[ananda]

1. oh god, if Bush were more..

stupid..

.. and Blair more intelligent ..

there would have been no war.

I wish I could drink that red koolaid sometimes.

Sue

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. "there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to"

Well, since he didn't have any WMD it's a sure thing he wasn't going to change.

[MasonJar]

3. Actually what they say is an equivocation and the reporter should

have called them on it. The UN inspectors were in Iraq and they were destroying his weapons. He was cooperating as well as he could since he of course could not let them destroy what he no longer had. The US made the inspectors leave so they could awe the poor Iraqis right out of their lives.