It's tradition that before each Congressional recess, House Republican leaders prepare recess briefing packets for their Members. The goal is to ensure that they're up-to-date when they head home, and have a quick summary of any important issues they may hear about while conducting events in their districts.
The WWS has received the recess briefing packets being distributed by leadership to Republican Members, which are now available online. The first thing you notice is that they are much longer and more thorough than any of recent vintage. So if some House Republican is exposed as uninformed on a key issue, it won't be for lack of reading material. (Similarly, if one is suffering insomnia, the cure is here.)
There are two briefing books--one entitled 'The War Against Radical Militant Islamists,' and another on all other issues. Together they total almost 80 pages of talking points, news articles, charts, and graphs.
The documents are pretty authoritative, distilling the key arguments that Republicans are now making regarding everything going on in the House. Since Iraq is far and away the central issue, I'll highlight just a few of the points made by Conference Chairman Adam Putnam and his team. In the document's introductory letter, Putnam notes the recent reports of success in Operation Phantom Thunder, and then says:
What makes these reports so striking is the fact that it was only in mid-June that General Petraeus received the full compliment of troops called for in the surge. It was at that point that U.S. forces began a new offensive against the terrorists. Now some reports suggest al-Qaeda is on the run in previously violence-ridden portions of the country.
We got some unexpected insight into what the Democrats think of all this news Monday evening when The Washington Post put out a dispatch reporting that Democrat Whip James Clyburn said that a positive report from Gen. Petraeus would be "a real big problem" for his party in their efforts to end the war.
Here you have the leader whose job it is to win his party votes on the House floor inadvertently revealing that Democrat leaders are politically invested in failure in Iraq. This is a time to keep faith with our troops in harm's way, not to abandon them in favor of political considerations...
Finally, when having these important discussions with constituents over the course of this recess, it is important that we remain cognizant of the fact that just as much as we understand the significance of Sept. 15, so too do our enemies. We can certainly expect the terrorists in Iraq to increase their attacks on U.S. troops - especially in the form of spectacular acts of violence - in the weeks leading up to Labor Day and in the days thereafter. This is an enemy that has proven it understands how to control the media and influence outcomes in Washington.
That last point in particular, is important to remember as we approach September 15.
What's most striking about this document is the emphasis on the success of Operation Phantom Thunder. It was just a few weeks ago that the media was tripping over itself to write stories about Republicans in Washington running from the war. A read of this document makes pretty clear that those days are behind.
A particularly handy reference for Republican Members of Congress will be the 'facts and myths' section (pages 12-16), which addresses each of the arguments being offered against the war: that the war is lost, that the US is arming Sunni insurgents against the government, that our commitment is open-ended, that Iraqis are not risking enough to establish their government, and others.
If you're interested in anything that Congress has done -- or in more cases, has failed to do -- in the first 7 months of Democratic leadership, take some time and review the sections of the papers that interest you. if you're interested in Iraq, the briefing book is an easily accessible reference for what's going on now -- and what to expect in the near future.
