The minutes reveal, among other things, that President Bush and Blair secretly agreed to invade Iraq long before weapons inspections had begun -- in fact, long before the United Nations was even approached about revisiting the idea of weapons inspections.

This memo proves what many around the world already knew: that the Bush administration lied about the reasons for waging war on this unarmed nation. Disgraceful! Particularly when you consider the more than 1,600 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of that lie.

But equally disgraceful is that the so-called mainstream media have failed to report on this important story. A search of the Star Tribune's archives brings up one story (published nearly two weeks after the London Times piece) that talks more about liberal outrage that the story hasn't received attention than the actual story.

Star Tribune reporter Sharon Schmickle interviewed St. Olaf Prof. Daniel Hofrenning for the May 13 article. Hofrenning said, "The underlying reality is that the United States has moved beyond the debate over the reasons for invading Iraq -- at the end of the day, citizens are going to judge [Bush] on whether a viable democracy is established in Iraq."

It isn't that Americans have moved on -- they were never there in the first place because they are uninformed. If the media reported on this story with half the vigor they reported on, say Clinton/Lewinsky or even "the runaway bride," then Americans would be more engaged. And if they understood the truth, would probably be enraged. Very few people I've talked to are even aware of this story.

I'm tired of this lazy journalism that divides the citizenry into opposing camps of liberals and conservatives. I am an angry American who, along with U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., wants some answers.

Media, I beg you to get your priorities straight. George W. Bush told the lie, but you're selling it and will be to blame when we wake up one morning and find we've sold our democracy to the largest financial contributors.

Kay Hansen, Minneapolis, is a massage therapist and writer.

© 2005 Star Tribune

###