Attytood: Politicizing the Pentagon

Tomorrow's New York Times has an article on how the GOP is trying to squeeze lemonade out of the situation in Iraq, led by what they insist is a "reinvigorated" Karl Rove. Indeed, as we (and others) have written, the legislative debate on Iraq is Klassic Karl in the sense of turning a weakness into a strength, just as he did successfully in 2004 by attacking John Kerry's Vietnam record -- to aid his candidate who got out of serving there entirely.

That's all fine and good, but we were struck by this passage:

The meetings were followed by the distribution of a 74-page briefing book to Congressional offices from the Pentagon to provide ammunition for what White House officials say will be a central line of attack against Democrats from now through the midterm elections: that the withdrawal being advocated by Democrats would mean thousands of troops would have died for nothing, would give extremists a launching pad from which to build an Islamo-fascist empire and would hand the United States its must humiliating defeat since Vietnam.

Republicans say the cumulative effect would be to send a message of weakness to the world at a time of new threats from Iran and North Korea and would leave enemies controlling Iraq's vast oil reserves, the third largest in the world. (The book, including a chapter entitled "Rapid Response" with answers to frequent Democratic charges, was sent via e-mail to Republican lawmakers but, in an apparent mistake, also to some Democrats.)