URGENT: We Need Your Help!

Rep. John Shadegg and his partisan colleagues are at it again. Here is a leaked strategy memo sent by Shadegg and Rep. Pete Hoekstra encouraging fellow Republicans to use fear to divert attention from honest debate about President Bush’s Iraq escalation.

Iraq Resolution Debate

Their Terms or Ours?

February 13, 2007

Dear Colleague:

We are writing to urge you not to debate the Democratic Iraq resolution on their terms, but rather on ours.

Democrats want to force us to focus on defending the surge, making the case that it will work and explaining why the President’s new Iraq policy is different from prior efforts and therefore justified.

We urge you to instead broaden the debate to the threat posed to Americans, the world, and all “unbelievers” by radical Islamists. We would further urge you to join us in educating the American people about the views of radical Islamists and the consequences of not defeating radical Islam in Iraq.

The debate should not be about the surge or its details. This debate should not even be about the Iraq war to date, mistakes that have been made, or whether we can, or cannot, win militarily. If we let Democrats force us into a debate on the surge or the current situation in Iraq, we lose.

Rather, the debate must be about the global threat of the radical Islamist movement. No radical Islamist leader, including Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahari, and Abu Musab al-Zawqawi, has ever claimed that the goal of radical Islam is Iraq alone or if they succeed in Iraq this war against us would end. In fact, Robert Kagen recently wrote a piece for the Washington Post entitled “Grand Delusion” noting many politicians’ desire to wish the war away. He notes that those who call for an end to the war don’t want to talk about the fact that the war in Iraq and in the region will not end, but will only grow more dangerous if and when we walk away.

Thanks to the liberal mainstream media, Americans fully understand the consequences of continuing our efforts in Iraq – both in American lives and dollars. The American people do not understand the consequences of abandoning that effort or extreme views, goals, and intentions of the radical Islamist movement that is fueling the war in Iraq and the attacks on westerners and unbelievers throughout the world.

The attached map and list of some of the attacks worldwide since 2002 illustrates the global nature of this threat.

Join us in asking our Democratic colleagues the essential question: If we do not defeat radical Islam in Iraq, then where will we do so?

We will send further information in the coming days. However, should your staff require further details, please have them contact Eric V. Schlecht at 5-3361 to get these insightful books: “Knowing the Enemy” by Mary Habeck and “America Alone” by Mark Steyn.

Sincerely,

John Shadegg
Member of Congress

Pete Hoekstra
Member of Congress

We don’t have much time, and we need your help to keep the debate honest and focused.

Help us hold Republicans like John Shadegg accountable for their failed Iraq policy!

We have a lot of work ahead of us, and without your support none of it is possible.

Our situation is urgent! We need your help right now! The U.S. House has passed the Resolution rejecting President Bush’s Iraq plan, and the Senate votes tomorrow.

Make a contribution now to do your part in fighting the Republican culture of fear!

Posted Sunday February 18, 2007 by