Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq

Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate

On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.”

ThinkProgress has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from Boehner instructing his caucus to conduct a very different kind of deliberation. Here’s a quick summary:

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.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/14/boehner-memo/

I guess Texas swagger is back.

Boehner's memo amplifies a "high-fear" drumbeat for the so-called war on terror and suggests that the death of Zarqawi, the completion of appointing Iraq's senior cabinet ministers, and Bush's personal meeting with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seal the deal for America achieving victory in its efforts there.

What Boehner doesn't tell his flock is that Zarqawi's team seems dedicated to worsening the violence and that Zarqawi's activities in their entirety were a very small percentage of the overall insurgency in Iraq (some commanders in the field were even trying to get the $25 million bounty on Zarqawi reduced because he was becoming proportionally less of the exploding problems in Iraq). He didn't say that Iraq's Minister of Defense -- only just appointed -- has already threated to resign if America goes on a massive hunt and kill effort through the Al Anbar region of Western Iraq. He didn't say that security in Iraq is still so bad that the meeting between Bush and al-Maliki was put on the Iraq Prime Minister's schedule just five minutes before Bush's arrival. That's not a sign of a stable relationship.

<snip>

H. Res. 861

RESOLUTION

Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

Whereas

be it resolved congress will not provide

health care
humvee armour
clean water
good food

etc...
etc...
etc...