It is good to occasionally get an insider’s peek at the inner cogs of government clanking away. One such peek is being offered by ThinkProgress [1], an impressive site that has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), to his caucus on how to deal with Iraq. Here is the bottom line, our new Iraq strategy:
1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as “imperative.”
2. Attack opponents ad hominem. The memo describes those who opposes President Bush’s policies in Iraq as “sheepish,” “weak,” and “prone to waver endlessly.”
3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting President Bush’s policies and hoping terrorist threats will “fade away on their own.”
To summarize the above summary:
1. Lie
2. Demean people who disagree
3. Do not consider whether the presence of the US military in Iraq is causing more problems than it is solving.
You can read the complete pdf version of this confidential memo here [2]
None of these Republican tactics surprise me (this is actually a comment on my low expectations for our current leaders). The above ideas certainly don’t inspire me. They aren’t the sorts of ideas that give me any confidence that there is any end game in Iraq. In fact, point #1 is downright evil given the lack of any connection between 9/11 and Iraq.
It’s a good thing our current leaders are God-fearing people who regularly say the pledge of allegiance. Think about how much worse this Iraq strategy memo would have been had it not been written by people so strongly guided by God and Country.
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