In 2003, during the early stages of the Iraq War, top secret daily Worldwide Intelligence Updates from then Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's office included biblical quotations to accompany photos of American forces preparing to enter battle, according to reporting by Robert Draper in GQ Magazine. A slideshow of cover pages he obtained shows, for example, what appears to be the entrance to an Iraqi city with a caption from Isaiah 26:2
Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.
This is, of course, outrageous, whether it was part of a scheme by Rumsfeld to curry favor with President Bush, as Draper reports, or merely represented the internal communication of lower level officers, and never seen by Bush, as a NYTimes follow-up quotes former Defense Department officials explaining in brushing off the allegations. The pictures – if authentic – are damning no matter the story surrounding them.
American foreign policy should never be designed to carry out the religious mission of military officials, no matter the rank of the official. The very suggestion by government documents that it might be doing just that offends the spirit of the Constitution, and does harm to our reputation around the world. There is really no excuse for it.
