Downing blunder

"It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force."
--Downing street memo

"The memo was apparently written before [UN security council resolution] 1441."
--Bush at the joint press conference with Tony Blair. June 7, 2005 (see below)

Wow. Did he really just try to brush off the memo with the excuse that it was written before he went to the UN? Is it me, or was that just the shoddiest defense ever? Really now, instead of adding onto a perfectly spun explanation by Blair, Bush should have just stood there, continuing to wiggle his right leg to hypnotise the American media into its usual starry-eyed trance, and let Blair do all the talking.

In fact, considering his comments on global warming:

"My administration isn't waiting around when it comes to acting."

He might want to consider letting Tony do all his press conferences!


Update: Here's Bush's full answer, (following Blair's):

"Well, I -- 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.) And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.
My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.
And so we worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully, take a -- put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, and say, the world speaks, and he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power."

He did imply that the memo could have been a false allegation because the metting that took place in London happened before we went to th UN. My point is that this meeting had to be before the going to the UN security council: that's the whole point of the memo!