Under Rumsfeld, Pentagon published Bible verses on top-secret intell reports

Via GQ,

These cover sheets were the brainchild of Major General Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence serving both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense. In the days before the Iraq war, Shaffer’s staff had created humorous covers in an attempt to alleviate the stress of preparing for battle. Then, as the body counting began, Shaffer, a Christian, deemed the biblical passages more suitable. Several others in the Pentagon disagreed. At least one Muslim analyst in the building had been greatly offended; others privately worried that if these covers were leaked during a war conducted in an Islamic nation, the fallout—as one Pentagon staffer would later say—“would be as bad as Abu Ghraib.”

But the Pentagon’s top officials were apparently unconcerned about the effect such a disclosure might have on the conduct of the war or on Bush’s public standing. When colleagues complained to Shaffer that including a religious message with an intelligence briefing seemed inappropriate, Shaffer politely informed them that the practice would continue, because “my seniors”—JCS chairman Richard Myers, Rumsfeld, and the commander in chief himself—appreciated the cover pages.

There is a lot of detail in the article accompanying the slideshow of these cover pages regarding Rumsfeld's general arrogance and stubbornness which resulted in real operational dysfunction, but the use of the Bible verses with these briefings is the really curious thing to me.

It seems almost like a bit of in-house propaganda, as if the verses reinforced the idea that the US had "God on her side." Why was it necessary to convince themselves of that? And there is something toxic in that outlook; if one side is godly, is the other side demonic? It's not a helpful way of looking at things, and I see it as another way in which this war can be read to have "Crusader" overtones. From the Pentagon, it might have just been a cynical use of religious symbolism that would appeal to a President who was a believer, yet even when used cynically, the symbolism still carries weight.

It's really just another example of an almost institutional relationship between religion and the military. It seems like a minor thing, until you put it into perspective.

(Hat-tip to ThinkProgress.)