Part III: The Downing Street Memo: Why the Mainstream Media is Catching On

The Downing Street Memo continues to spread in American political discussion despite efforts to dismiss its significance by many special interest groups. Thanks to the many media stories, and bloggers, such as yourself, this document which outlines how the Bush Admiinistration made up its own mind to attack Iraq and then went on to justify it afterwards is garnering much attention. Here is the website: http://www.downingstreetmemo.com . In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and complelling military reason for war.

Mr. Bush's popularity rate is at an all time low, and there are reported divisions within the Republican party on his position regarding Iraq. Senator Linsey Graham was this morning reported as questioning the decision to remain in this country where we are spending billions of American dollars and putting more lives in jeopardy.

The Downing Street Memo is significant because it really represents two stories: an emerging alternative history of how the United States came to attack Iraq and a story of how the News Media has usurped some of the old media's power to set the agenda. Many supporters of Mr. Bush and his administration are making an effort to diminish the importance of this story, or create a spin leaving the American to question the validity of the memo, feeling like a hamster on a tred-mill going along for a ride and unable to get off.

The real issue, and one which is most significant, is whether the Downing Street Memo warrants an investigation by Congress. If in fact the American people were misled to war, and more than 1700 American lives were lost and more lives and families wounded and shattered, costing billions of tax payer dollars, the American public, meaning you, me, and everyone, has a right to know.

Thank you for your minds.