McDermott Speaks Out at Forum on the Downing Street Memo

I delivered the following remarks on July 23, 2005, at a community forum that focused on the British "Downing Street Memo." The memo contain minutes from a secret meeting, on July 23, 2002, among United Kingdom government, defense, and intelligence figures discussing the buildup to the war in Iraq. The Iraq war did not officially begin until March 20, 2003.

As I see it, Downing Street is the "D" in what I think is the overall theme of this forum: DIRE Emergency.

The "D" represents Downing Street.
Iraq is the "I".
Rove is the "R".
Everything else this Administration does is the "E".

DIRE Emergency sums up the state of America after six years of total Republican control.

Checks and balances used to refer to protecting freedom and liberty in America, but today, checks and balances refer to the bank accounts of the rich.

Those checks and balances are growing. The only thing growing for middle America is the growing threat of economic extinction as the Administration uses tax policy and special interest legislation to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of a privileged few.

Thanks to the republican majority, America has a new bankruptcy law. Now, a single mother trying to get some money for herself and children from a spouse filing bankruptcy will have to fight the credit card companies in court. They've moved to the head of the line thanks to their republican friends.

DIRE Emergency is what America faces. Downing Street is a case in point.

I said the President would mislead the American people to launch a war in Iraq. After I said it in Washington, and repeated it on national television, the Republicans launched a furious and vicious personal assault to discredit and destroy me. They have never let up.

The Downing Street Memo proves that what I said was absolutely true, and what the President said- repeatedly- to the American people was never true.

Here is a direct quote from the memo. "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The American people were misled into war by a President willing to manipulate public opinion using a strategy I referred to in a movie: they can make you do anything if you're afraid.

The "I" in DIRE Emergency stands for Iraq; the President wanted to settle an old score left over from his father's administration. The President wanted Saddam out and fear was his best weapon to mislead the American people into believing we had to invade Iraq to save America. In the run up to the war, I and a few others defied the Republican assaults and kept calling for two things: restraint and evidence. The Administration was not interested in either.

The "R" in DIRE Emergency stands for Rove, the President's deputy chief of staff. An independent federal prosecutor is looking into troubling questions involving Rove.

What did he know? When did he know it? And, did he conspire to undermine national security by leaking the name of a covert CIA agent as part of a smear campaign against her husband?

The outing of a covert CIA agent was the centerpiece of a vicious attack on Joe Wilson, a former U.S. Ambassador, who had been sent to Africa to investigate if Saddam was obtaining WMD material. He came back and said the reports were not true. He wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times. Almost immediately the personal attacks began and escalated. Because in this Administration, you either toe the line or get hung out to dry.

The "E" in DIRE Emergency stands for everything else.

America has lost over 17 hundred U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Over ten thousand U.S. soldiers have been wounded. At least 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and we can't even count the number of Iraqi's wounded.

Every day the killing goes on, the chaos grows and this Administration says we could be there another 12 years. There was no reason, no plan and there is no exit strategy.

America is not safer. You know it. I know it. The Republicans refuse to admit it. That would be admitting reality and that is in short supply these days in this Administration.

Iraq has turned into a breeding ground of horrific and growing violence. There are 275 duly elected democratic members of the Iraqi Parliament. So far, 126 of them have signed an official statement calling on the U.S. to get out, NOW. That is almost half of the entire Parliament elected by the Iraqi people.

We come together today because we care about America and we see what is happening. Republicans enforce silent dissent. Democrats embrace public discourse. That is the fundamental difference between the two parties today.

The Downing Street Memo brought us together, but there is so much more to talk about. I encourage you to share your thoughts and ideas. Give me ammunition- and inspiration- to keep on fighting the fight.

Revision date: July 29, 2005