Downing Street Sausage

In my signature to the MoveOn.org petition for public answers and inquiries with regard to the Downing Street memo, I added the following comments:

It is said that making law is like making sausage: nobody wants to know what goes in as long as something edible comes out. Making policy is much the same, I'm sure. But one of the reasons that we have laws and liability attachments to food production is to ensure the safety and quality of the ingredients in our sausages. Similarly, we have a free press and administrative procedures and separation of powers to ensure that our policy process is reasonably clean and does not kill us. Our Iraq policy is proving to be both immediately fatal to Iraqis and American military, and deeply detrimental to the political, economic and social strength of the nation.

A hot-dog manufacturer that killed thousands and sickened tens of thousands would be shut down, investigated, and made to pay. Why shouldn't our public policy be held to a similar standard?

To be fair, of course, a great many members of Congress have authorized, failed to restrict, funded and otherwise supported US policy towards Iraq, and they should also be held to account. Que se vayan todos!