In the latest edition of Gil Gutknecht's "E-Line" newsletter, produced by his House office, Gil opens by detailing his latest concerns about the situation in Iraq:
On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki spoke to Congress. He made clear that Iraq is the pivot point in the worldwide war against those who would use terror to enslave freedom-loving people.
His closing, " Iraq will become the graveyard of terrorism" will be remembered for years. We all hope and pray that his prophecy comes true.
Is Gutknecht backing off from his previous criticism of the situation in Iraq? It certainly sounds like it.
To be fair, Gutknecht follows this with an almost unbelieveably weak attempt to hold on to his credibility:
Obviously, I wish that the Prime Minister had offered to shoulder a larger share of the burden of securing Baghdad. But, I do understand that the new strategy will involve principally Iraqi units with small numbers of US Special forces imbedded. This will be welcome news.
But Gutknecht then undermines this shaky attempt to maintain his credibility on Iraq by linking to an article which belittles the dangers our soldiers face in Baghdad, the very city Gutknecht believes requires more security:
For a soldier, ducking a sniper's bullet in downtown Baghdad is all in a day's work, no matter how alarming it looks on television. The soldier will shrug it off and walk the same streets the next day if he believes in his mission. The key for Bush is to communicate that same sense of mission to the people back home.
Last week's statements on Iraq from Gil made national headlines. But as we've seen more and more since then, Gil's comments upon returning from Iraq were really nothing more than a media stunt. He's the same old Gil, utterly blind to the realities of the situation in Iraq.
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