It's not going away

As much as the Bush Administration hopes it will go away (they claim it is "old news"), the Downing Street Memo and the more recenly released memos and their ramifications for the legality of the war are not fading into the past. The most striking thing displayed in these memos, although it was largely realized by the anti-war movement during the protests leading up to the war, is that Bush had his mind set on invading Iraq and was willing to fudge the intelligence that was missing and cherry-pick from what was available. As it turned out, the intelligence was largely correct on the WMD issue: there wasn't any. In lieu of that, the Administration has switched rationales for the war to "spreading democracy" and "liberation", although neither goal was presented initially in the selling of the war. Instead, what has happened is an occupation. A bloody, protracted occupation of a country that does not want American occupation. In addition to leaving Iraq, the Administration should be held accountable for waging an illegal war that has killed hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis. I wonder where the Administration's hostility to the International Criminal Court came from. Perhaps their fears that they might be brought to justice under its laws.