To My Anti-War Friends;

Here's some ammunition to counter the Rovian talking points that are blindly spouted by those uninformed, blindly loyal Repugs that have listened or heard about today's debate in the House on the War in Iraq.

A confidential memo has just come to light that was issued by the House Majority Leader for the purpose of framing the "talking points" for the Republican side of today's debate in the US House of Representatives on the War in Iraq. Here are three of those talking points showing the typical Rovian political attack on those members that are calling for the withdrawal of troops from the Iraqi War Zone. This is his typical use of false and misleading "swiftboat" accusations to paint the Administration's opponents as weak on security!! Notice they use 9/11 again and again, when even President Bush has "finally" admitted that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with that attack. Also notice the use of the descriptive statements emphasizing “sheepish, weak, prone to waver endlessly and hoping the problem will fade away on its own”. This comes from a group of "chickenhawks" in the Administration that during the Vietnam War were;… "Sheepish, weak, prone to waver and hoping against hope that the war would go away without them having to fight it!"

From the memo"

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 oppose 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."

Source:
ThinkProgress
http://www.thinkprogress.org/ confidential- boehner-memo

Here is a post from by John in DC on AmericaBlog - 6/14/2006 11:52:00 AM that I find is a perfect response to the above GOP memo attacking Democrats over September 11:

Incompetence!

Yeah, the Republicans stepped up to the plate alright after September 11. And they screwed everything up.

Sure, the Republicans talk tough about living in a post-9/11 world. But they've proven they're simply too incompetent to run the war on terror and to trust with your life and the lives of your children.

Republicans: Big balls; small brains.

Source:
Americablog http://americablog. blogspot. com/2006/ 06/what-should- our-response- be-to-new-gop.html

P.S. I just heard Henry Hyde (R-Il) (A senile old f**t if there ever was one) claim that John Kerry was responsible for 9/11. I guess he went above and beyond the guidelines of the memo. Maybe Bush will give him the Medal of Freedom.

Shayne Munger

"These are the times that try men's souls." ~Thomas Paine

2,500 troops have died...and the Republicans continue to sell the 'fear factor'; instead of regarding our war dead...and accept that the 'policy' has failed.

Iraq Govt will soon grant 'amenesty' to Insurgents who have killed Americans...

where's the logic to this insanity?

There is an interesting article in the July issue of Vanity Fair
about the run up to the Iraq war, titled: "The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed".
(I just love that title, it says it all).

I watched the "debate" on t.v. for awhile, but became so disgusted listening to the Republicans, that I turned it off. I think about the war in Iraq everyday. I have the same thoughts about it all now as I did in the Vietnam War era. In those days we didn't have the Internet to find out what the "smoking guns" were regarding the war. But all I had to do was hear the news on t.v. at night and go to college by day to see the anguish it was causing the young people who potentially had to go to this war.

As the years went by and different presidential powers came to be, I always thought they all seemed careful not to have another Vietnam War. My gosh, I would say to myself, maybe they have really learned a lesson here. Maybe they are actually being careful not to start another war like that one. Even Bush the Father was careful not to continue into a full scale war.

What we have now is a huge monster. Something rising up and becoming so big I wonder how to get rid of it. Listening to those numbsculls on t.v. with their illogical thinking, flirting with the death of our children with their stories of fear, make me very disgusted. The only way to stop this is to vote them out of office in November. But I wish it would happen sooner.

We all have to keep telling people how we feel about it no matter what. Granted people have changed their minds about Iraq and most are not happy with Bush's war. But we absolutely can't allow him to try and change anyone's mind back again.

When are we going to concentrate on making our country better instead of always talking about Iraq? It's always about Iraq with Bush. It would be refreshing to hear about what new things the government might be thinking about for our own country. What new inventions do we have for our energy problems, what new education plan do we have for our kids, what new plan to get more knowledge jobs for Americans, maybe more jobs to improve our infrastructure, or more jobs to relieve some security problems. Bush's war has consumed us in so many ways.

June 17, 2006

To The Honorable Ken Calvert;

As usual you again voted against the wishes of the majority of your constituents by casting your Yea vote in support of H. Res. 861…..DECLARING THAT THE UNITED STATES WILL PREVAIL IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR.

This was a disingenuous resolution presented by the GOP Leadership in the House that was politically motivated and came directly from the “Rovian Playbook For the 2006 Mid-Term Elections”. The debate was limited to a mere 10 hours and the possibility of submitting amendments to this resolution was denied. I would think that the debate on something of this importance to the American people would be worth the extension of the debate time. I also feel that the submission of amendments to the resolution would be of great interest to the many constituents of the House Members so that it would help make it clear to them where their Congressional Reps. stood on the different views on both the War on “Terrorism” (not Terror) and the War in Iraq.

Of course if an extended debate and amendments were allowed on H. Res. 861, then the Congressmen that supported this idiotic resolution would probably run out of the White House and Defense Dept. crafted “Talking Points” with which to address the myriad tangents that might result from this additional discourse [e.g. The War Iraq not being part of the War on “Terrorism”; The lies and half-truths used to justify the War in Iraq; The fact that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11 (The Saudis and the UAE did); There was no plan for the Peace; The $20 Billion of Iraqi reconstruction money that was “misplaced”; The leader of al-Qaeda is Osama and not Zarqawi; There are only about 1000 foreign fighters in Iraq and the rest are Iraqi insurgents; There “IS” a civil war in Iraq; Despite the death of Zarqawi, we are NOT winning in Iraq; Militias in Iraq are the ones really in control of both the police and the Iraqi military; We are occupiers not liberators; Are Iraqis better off now?...NO!; We now have 2500 US Military deaths resulting from this NOBLE cause (Tony Snow says of the 2500 deaths… “its just a number”); The Administration’s is planning to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq; 80% of Iraqis want us out of their country; Over 50% think it’s OK to kill Americans; A large majority of Americans think that the Iraq War was a mistake; Another majority wants our troops out of there; The rampant war profiteering (e.g. Halliburton); The lack of proper equipment by our troops (e.g. body armor and armored Humvees); The almost $500 Billion already spent on this war with no end in sight; Torture; The shame of Abu Grebe and Guantanamo; The suspension of Habeus Corpus; The practice of rendition by the CIA; The illegal warrantless domestic spying; The lack of Congressional oversight; Data mining by the NSA; The Defense Dept.’s file on Iraq War dissenters; The President using 750 signing statements to say that he could ignore the law; The Unitary Presidency; and even the possibility that war crimes have been perpetrated by this Government.]

I think that this extensive laundry list shows the idiocy of the televised spectacle that was presented to the American people showing the White House instigated debate on this ill-conceived resolution. I was ashamed for my country and I was ashamed that my Congressman voted to support this resolution. Congressman with that vote “you didn’t speak for me” and I know that you certainly didn’t speak for a majority of your constituents!

Shayne Munger
Riverside, CA