Why did we go into Iraq?

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Your red quote says that Rumsfeld told them Saddam had WMDs, and the Brits asked questions using that premise.

The memo does not suggest any such thing. The quote is speculation by Brit military.

"fixed" in this case means cherry picked and massaged.

It does not. The paragraph tells us that they wanted to use military force and now sought intelligence to justify that approach.

That's a subtle difference, but it's important.

If the US administration wanted to cherry-pick and massage the intelligence, this would not be the subject of a British government meeting with memos.

If any of the Brits in this meeting felt the Americans were lying, chrry-picking or massaging, the meeting would be quite different.

It is not an opinion memo, it is the minutes of a meeting.

And that section of the memo is the minutes reporting the opinion of one person.

Nice try HM, but your own bias is showing in your interpretation.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The memo does not suggest any such thing. The quote is speculation by Brit military.

Sorry. I indeed read it wrong there.

It does not. The paragraph tells us that they wanted to use military force and now sought intelligence to justify that approach.

That's a subtle difference, but it's important.

What is the difference? Making a decision and then asking for intelligence to justify it is the very definition of cherry picking and massaging.

And that section of the memo is the minutes reporting the opinion of one person.

Well, I guess you can always dismiss any report as the opinion of the author. But that was "C's" report on his meeting.