Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[The Editor's Blog] Does the Downing Street Memo have legs?: Known as the Downing Street Memo, this secret, top-level British government document consists of minutes from a July 23, 2002, meeting attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair and his closest advisors, revealing their impression that the Bush administration, eight months before the start of the Iraq war in 2003, had already decided to invade and that Washington seemed more concerned with justifying a war than preventing one.

[Captainsquartersblog.com] Captain's Quarters: The elections made them somewhat irrelevant, as their certainty that a Sunni boycott would kill the validity of the polling -- an impression unfortunately advanced by certain American politicians -- created an unpleasant surprise for them last January, as the world cheered when eight million of their fellow Iraqis defied their threats and voted. They now have discovered what it means to be locked out of a democratically-elected government, especially one that has the responsibility of drafting the basic Iraqi law that will guide Iraqi life for the foreseeable future.

 [Thinkprogress.org] Think Progress: Kinsley discounts the Minutes because they were based on meetings by the head of British foreign intelligence (known as C) “in Washington.” As a result, the Minutes recount the conclusions of “people other than Bush” and aren’t worth our attention. But even Kinsley admits that C may have been meeting with “actual administration decision makers.” (Why would the head of British foreign intelligence brief Tony Blair – as Kinsley suggests is likely –

 [Politicalforecast.blogspot.com] The Political Forecast: During the meeting, Senator Frist kept saying that Democrats kept moving the goal post further and further back. When it was pointed out by the press that the Democrats had actually lessened their demands, Frist ignored them and moved onto other questions. Steve himself asked some great questions, so make sure to check out TWN.

[Brandonblog.com] War Blog 115: The violence at the police station came in the mostly Shiite south, where resentment toward Saddam Hussein's government had been strong. There had been no substantial attacks there against U.S. or British forces since the end of the war, and British troops in the city of Basra had felt so secure that they had stopped wearing helmets and flak jackets.

[Newsdissector.com] News Dissector Blog » 2003 » June » 25: "Patrick Tyler of the Times (U.S.-British Project: To Build a Postwar Iraqi Armed Force of 40,000 Soldiers in 3 Years) also reports on the announcement of the formation of a new Air Force-less Iraqi military -- 40,000 troops trained by an American major general and "defense contractors" (i.e. rent-a-mercenary companies), only 12,000 "light infantry (emphasis on the "light") next year.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Iraq, Iraq Reviews