If I had lost a loved one fighting in Iraq or currently had a soldier over there, I would be enraged over the Downing Street Memo. The Downing Street Memo is the recently leaked minutes from a 2002 British government meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security team. The memo told of how Bush’s decision to strike was already set prior to his presenting the plan to Congress. The former head of British Secret Intelligence Services, Richard Dearlove (who had just gotten back from meetings in Washington, D.C.), was sure Bush wanted to “remove Saddam Hussein through military action … But the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy.” Facts “fixed”? Isn’t that like manufacturing evidence? How do you explain that to kids who signed on to fight evildoers and secure their WMDs, only to come home in flag-draped boxes to a nation where, according to a recent Gallup poll, almost 60 percent of its citizens now feel the war was a total mistake? How do you explain it to grieving parents who thought their sons and daughters died in a war where military power had been used only as the absolute last resort — like Bush said it would be? How do you explain the lost sons and daughters because of a callous president who lied?

Ron Paul is a consevative in the true sense of the word. I consider myself a leftest. I’m for a women’s right to choose while Paul is decidedly anti-choice. But I respect Paul’s positions even where our principals diverge. Most importantly, Ron Paul has pledged to end the imperial war our tratorious “leaders” never will.

I plan to vote for Ron Paul if he runs in the national election. I hope all voters of principle will as well.

James C. Willeford
Durham, NC