TUCSON DAILY STAR EDITORIAL ON THE DSMs

Memos chip away at administration war motives

The star's view: America went to war against Iraq for the wrong reasons and now plans to pull troops out before it can win the peace against the insurgents.

The Downing Street memos we read about last week confirm what many Americans suspected - that invading Iraq was a foregone conclusion and that Saddam Hussein was an easy target for a nation eager to act after 9/11.
British concerns revealed in the leaked memos are the same as those expressed by many Americans later: Why target Saddam when it was Osama bin Laden we should go after?
Today we know the United States planned the war carefully and undertook the invasion with perfection. But in an attack of apparent naivete, the administration believed all it had to do to liberate Iraq was to topple Saddam.
It did not plan on bogging down in a massive rebuilding effort. And it did not foresee that eliminating the government - however tyrannical - would invite terrorists into Iraq to fight against Americans and our allies and to kill Iraqis on a massive scale.
According to the memos, six months after 9/11 and a year before the invasion, then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice wanted to speak to the British only about "regime change" in Iraq. It concerned at least one official in the administration of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," according to one memo. "For Iraq, 'regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."
Other memos noted that Saddam had not advanced his weapons of mass destruction as claimed by the Bush administration in the runup to the war. More important, Prime Minister Blair feared a pre-emptive invasion would be illegal under international law.
The memos support the notion that war was waged for the wrong reasons. But now that the United States is knee-deep in the bloody mess it has created, it cannot leave this shattered country for fear the terrorists will take over.
The message of the eight memos is not lost on the country that is backing away from widescale support as more people die in suicide attacks. In only one example of crumbling American resolve, the military is having trouble recruiting young soldiers.
And the administration is sending mixed signals about the situation. Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgency was in its "last throes." But last weekend was one of the bloodiest yet, with 45 people killed in violence around the country. On Monday, another 37 people died in suicide bombings and other violence. Clearly, Cheney was mistaken.
The official stance of denial was called into question by Republican senators. One, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said, "The reality is, we're losing in Iraq."
Now President Bush has decided to leave his weakening Social Security initiative to address his weakening Iraqi situation. White House officials said the president is planning a series of speeches focusing on his strategy for success. Any strategy at this point would be welcome in an occupation that seems devoid of strategy.
But the most chilling message delivered by the White House is that the fighting will continue after the United States leaves and that the president wants Iraqi security forces to take over as soon as possible.
Further, according to a Knight Ridder news report, the president's plan to leave Iraq before winning the peace is at the urging of military commanders who say they can't defeat the insurgents in battle. That battle can be won only by the Iraqi people turning on the insurgents, they say.
It's a sad indictment of American policy that we started a war we had no intention of justifying, and now, it appears, no intention of finishing.
- M.H.