If you have ever studied American politics, you probably have noticed that most of the basic principles about government concern structure and process. Although not as interesting as philosophy or issues, most people instinctively realize that how public officials make decisions is at the core of our system of government.

Even though structure is critical to government, it is not the most fundamental part of it. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The whole of government consists in the art of being honest.” When it comes to Iraq, President Bush should brush up on his Jefferson.

There is new documentation that suggests that how Bush took us into Iraq was less than honest. The release of the “Downing Street Memo” raises troubling questions about the veracity of our president. It is about time that we had a nonpartisan, independent investigation into how we got into the Iraq war.

The memo contains minutes of a meeting that took place on July 23, 2002, in London, eight months before the invasion of Iraq. The top British political leaders were there, including Tony Blair, the defense and foreign secretaries and the heads of the major intelligence agencies. One of the most crucial parts of memo states the following (in describing recent conversations in Washington): “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 fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record.”

A few days ago, Bush and Blair specifically denied a key part of the memo: that intelligence and facts were fixed to support the goal of removing Saddam from power. These recent denials contradict earlier statements from American and British officials that had confirmed the accuracy and authenticity of the memo.

What is the truth? I believe the memo.

When it comes to Iraq, there have been too many distortions, self-deceptions and outright propaganda for me to believe the president. In fact, the memo is just the latest evidence that shows that invading Iraq was inevitable for Bush. All the talk about this war being a last resort was a lie. The seemingly genuine concern for the mission of the United Nations was a fabrication. The buildup to the war was an elaborately choreographed charade.

Congress could have stopped him but didn’t. In 2002, then Congressman John Baldacci and First District Rep. Tom Allen voted against the Iraq resolution. U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted to allow Bush to start the war without having to come back to Congress. In March 2003, Snowe repeated Bush’s line about “being in the final phase of diplomacy.” Collins was also quoted as saying, “I still believe that we should pursue diplomatic measures until the final hour.”

I wonder if Snowe and Collins still believe that Bush was genuinely interested in a diplomatic solution.

A recent poll by the Washington Post and ABC News suggests that a lot of Americans have reservations about Iraq: 58 percent believe the war was not worth fighting and 65 percent believe we have gotten bogged down. The tragic consequences of the war are crystal clear.

Bush’s attempted manipulation of the U.N. Security Council has fueled distrust of our government, making us less able to lead on the world stage.

Bush’s “spinning” of intelligence information has confirmed the worst suspicions of cynics about our government: in particular, that everything in Washington is “political.”

Almost 1,700 American soldiers are dead, including nine Mainers.

The financial cost of this war is so great that Washington simply cannot afford to spend more money on any other problems. The federal government spends $4.1 billion a month on Iraq. Our aggregate spending stands at $204 billion.

According to the National Priorities Project, the Iraq war has cost Maine $589.4 million. The war has cost Lewiston alone $12.9 million.

It should be noted that Snowe and Collins have played positive roles in pushing recent intelligence reform in Washington. However worthy these efforts were, they missed the major point. The fundamental problem was how the Bush administration misused the intelligence.

Last weekend, Snowe spoke to the graduating seniors of Edward Little High School in Auburn. She said that challenges can be answered “the old fashioned way – with cooperation, compromise, consensus and collaboration. It embraces reasoned thinking. It respects divergent views and ends with leadership.” She is absolutely right. It’s too bad that President Bush did not adopt those principles when he implemented his Iraq policy.

Our whole political system is about accountability. President Bush is fundamentally wrong when he implied that the last presidential election “settled” the issue of the Iraq. If that was true, then the “ends” (Bush winning the election) justifies the “means” (using deception to bolster the case for war). That doesn’t sound like the America I know.

Karl Trautman has taught political science for more than 20 years. He has been a policy analyst for the Michigan legislature and a research assistant for “Meet The Press.” He chairs the Social Sciences Department at Central Maine Community College and can be reached at [email protected].