An Avalanche of Memos

"Bradley Graham writes in The Washington Post: "One month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, three State Department bureau chiefs warned of 'serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance' in a secret memorandum prepared for a superior.
"The State Department officials, who had been discussing the issues with top military officers at the Central Command, noted that the military was reluctant 'to take on 'policing' roles' in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The three officials warned that 'a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally.' . . . -- Washington Post, 8/18/05

The Downing Street Memos, you remember them? Documents from the British Government that show that the war we are currently waging in Iraq (and it is a War, thank you very much) was based on spurious, false and manipulated intelligence data.

An avalanche starts as a very soft sound, barely a murmur, but as it goes on it grows louder and stronger, gaining in force until it sweeps away all before it. That is the lesson of the Downing Street Documents. With every new revelation, every memo ferreted out of the clutches of this corrupt Administration, the sound grows a bit louder, and the avalanche builds in strength.