Partly Facetious: Downing Street memo says Iraq was fixed

"The latest is that there is a memo that was leaked from Downing Street."
"I can't understand the West at all. I mean they seem to be belabouring the obvious. Of course Bush and his Poodle made a case for war - Saddam had nothing, not even the love of his own people. All he had was the power."
"Yes, but the new memo says that the intelligence was fixed."
"All the other revelations, including statements by Blix, the then UN weapons inspector, always revealed that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam was not allied with Bin Laden. The war was fixed. We all know that. Newspaper stories at the time said so, though to be honest the mainstream Press in the US and the UK was largely supporting the war. The left wing press opposing the war remained marginalized. And the irony is it remains so. Why can't some rich Arab buy a newspaper chain in the West."
"Yeah but then..."
"There are no buts. Every one knew. Bush has not paid a political price for that decision as the American right loves him and came out in droves to keep him in power. The Poodle has paid a price by having his parliamentary majority slashed by some 100 odd seats, a significant number. But in the case of the British they had no alternative to Poodle, I think. They had Howard who had also supported the war, not considered PM material." "But you have to give him one thing. He has indicated his willingness to resign by the end of the year."
"Sounds like someone else we know."
"I don't think there is going to be any ifs and buts."
"More like never."
"OK, OK, so you maybe right."
"Talking of the one who won't resign, he is in Canberra - was given a 21 gun salute there."
"I wonder if it's as much an honour as we may have been led to believe. I mean Bush never got that, not because Howard wouldn't bend over backward to please Bush but because democratically elected leaders don't want a gun salute if you know what I mean."
"You reckon Musharraf got the 21 guns because they wanted to greet him in a style that he was accustomed to because of his uniform?"
"Well, not that he was wearing it - he never wears a uniform abroad, only when he visits the gullible Chaudhrys and the Balochis and oh yes, the Pathans as well."
"But the Aussies knew about the uniform."
"Indeed."