Translating the Downing Street Memo
Translating the Downing Street Memo
Robin Niblett says all the fuss about the Downing Street Memo is just all a big misunderstanding:
Robin Niblett of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, says it would be easy for Americans to misunderstand the reference to intelligence being “fixed around” Iraq policy. ” ‘Fixed around’ in British English means ‘bolted on’ rather than altered to fit the policy,” he says.
So for Americans the Downing Street Memo should read:
There was a perceptible shift in attitude. 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 BOLTED ON the policy.
See, now it makes perfect sense. What was everyone worried about?
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That guy Niblett is a moron. Fixed around means bolted on in American English too. But when you are talking about plumbing, not intelligence.
June 8th, 2005 at 12:12 pmFixed around also means to make unbroken, around. So really what this shows is the administration made every effort to fix the intelligence, which we all know was broken.
See, it’s all in how you interpret things. You can also be “pleased with the progress in Iraq” if only you stop quibbling over the meaning of progress. Democracy in Uzbekistan, human rights in Saudi Arabia, rendition, and illegal combatants are just part of the new political landscape.
Oh, and one more thing: Mission Accomplished!
June 8th, 2005 at 12:21 pmSounds like, whatever the meaning, the policy was created before the intelligence. Otherwise, there’d be nothing to “bolt-on” to…
June 8th, 2005 at 12:36 pmI understand perfectly now; Georgie decided to go to war in Iraq about a year before he actually did — with intelligence he was either fixed around or bolted on.
Actually, I think we all understood that already…
June 8th, 2005 at 12:43 pmWith Howard Dean speaking (shreiking) for the dumocrats, I see many long decades of GoP power ahead.
June 8th, 2005 at 1:21 pmAhhh, another useless example of poor wit from our rightwingnuts. Your mother must be very proud (NOT!).
June 8th, 2005 at 1:35 pmNiblett really meant to say that “fixed around” means “Boltoned on” in GDumbya-ese.
June 8th, 2005 at 1:35 pmDamn – ya beat me to it!! Funny how his name comes up in this context, huh?!?!
June 8th, 2005 at 1:51 pmKind of sounds like the old …”gee, we were just kidding”… explaination. They must be pretty dumb in England if this is all they can come up with.
June 8th, 2005 at 2:44 pmThen why did the British media characterize the memo as meaning that the facts and intel were being manipulated? Wouldn’t you think that they know what the term means to the British?
Out of one side of their mouths they say the memo is unreliable because it was released just before the election to discredit Blair. Out of the other side they say the memo doesn’t discredit anyone because we don’t misunderstand the language. So why was releasing it just before the election a problem?
June 8th, 2005 at 2:55 pmIt must be a local idiom. The author of the memo was from South Essex. The british press are from North Essex, and thus took a different meaning from the phrase “The intelligence is being fixed around the policy.”
Now can someone explain the British English translation of “Iraq is not threatening its neighbors and its WMD capabilities are far less than Iran, N Korea, and Libya?”
June 8th, 2005 at 5:42 pmWell tOm, I can respond to that very easily. Iraq was threatening its neighbors and its WMD capabilities weren’t far less than blah blah…
June 8th, 2005 at 6:08 pmLiberal Blogosphere Surpasses Cable News
June 8th, 2005 at 11:25 pmUS in talks with Iraqi insurgents
June 11th, 2005 at 6:33 amHey, actually, I keep waiting for John B to respond again. He so clearly set out a logical argument as to why we should not construe the memo as the smoking gun that it truly is.
For those that forgot how well this “GoP supporter” set out his position he said
“With Howard Dean speaking (shreiking) for the dumocrats, I see many long decades of GoP power ahead.”
Well done John B. Your President would be proud of ya.
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