“On the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing’s cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days’ war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death.”
This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” On April 7, Saddam Hussein struck a dictatorial pose, under this passage from the First Epistle of Peter: “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”
In the days surrounding the U.S. invasion of Iraq, cover sheets–like the ones in this slideshow–began adorning top-secret intelligence briefings produced by Ronald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon. The sheets juxtaposed war images with inspirational Bible quotes and were delivered by Rumsfeld himself to the White House, where they were read by the man whom, just after September 11, referred to America’s war on terror as a “crusade.” From GQ.
May 17, 2009
Rumsfeld and the Crusades memos
May 15, 2009
Bush/Cheney kept us safe through torture.
If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you’d be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.
Paul Begala, “Mr. Cheney, You did not keep us safe.”
January 14, 2009
July 26, 2008
NRO: Obama is a “utopian radical”
National Review test drives several critiques of Obama’s speech in Berlin. He is insincere? Maybe, but “most voters don’t seem to buy this line of attack, and it risks making conservatives look bitter, marginalized, and defeated already.” They decide to go with the “utopian-radical foreign policy” critique, instead. (more…)
July 22, 2008
Michael Medved on parallels between Iraq and Philippines
Michael Medved, who I thought reviewed movies on TV, tells us about the parallels between the US occupations of Iraq and the Philippines.
The U.S. succeeded through generous policies during the occupation as much as through courage on the battlefield… Soldiers built schools, ran sanitation campaigns, vaccinated people, collected customs duties, set up courts run by natives, supervised municipal elections, and generally administered governmental functions efficiently and honestly. (more…)
