Sometimes I wonder about our elected officials. How can they be so dumb, or think we are so dumb?
That came to mind last week when I heard a newscast about the Minnesota First Congressional District race.
It gave a revealing picture of our present congressman, Gil Gutknecht. First he was quoted in June, talking about how the war in Iraq would improve in our favor after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
After that event happened on June 7, he said the public should not ìgo wobblyî on the war. Thatís an ugly phrase to me, like ìcut and run.î It implies weakness and cowardice, which I guess is how you address someone who disagrees with you, at least if you are politician.
ìYou canít know all the facts when you get involved in something like this,î he told a reporter. ìBut I think even the facts today demonstrate that we did the right thing and are doing the right thing.î
Maybe he was just trying to put a good spin on the event. But if he meant it, it really was naive, thinking that the death of one terrorist would make any real difference in the war in Iraq. If he didnít mean it, thatís just as bad, because he is not being forthright.
Not to mention the fact that Zarqawi would never have been in Iraq in the first place if we hadnít invaded the country, because despite what our president says, Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein had no ties whatsoever. The CIA has made that plain. But thatís another subject.
Now Gutknecht has a new position on the war. He visited Iraq a month later, and has had a change of heart. He came back saying this: ìWe all came back with the same view. and that is that things in Baghdad are much worse than we had been led to believe. Thatís not to say that we were being misled. But I think there was an impression among our intelligence officials and at the Pentagon that once Zarqawi was taken down, things were going to improve dramatically. That has not been the case.î
There it was again, the thought that the death of one terrorist was going to improve the war in Iraq dramatically. Iíll repeat what I said in paragraph one. Thatís dumb, or itís misleading. Neither one is a quality I like to see in my congressman.
The death of terrorists breeds more terrorists. Thereís an endless supply. Even Osama Bin Ladenís capture or death wonít change that. In fact, it will be an inspiration to his followers. And he has many more followers now than he did on September 11, 2001, thanks to our invasion of Iraq.
Gutknechtís political opponent, Tim Walz, showed a lot of leadership after Gutknecht had his recent epiphany on Iraq. Walz could have blasted Gutknecht for his sudden change of heart on the war in Iraq. But he didnít. ìIf heís found and searched his soul and understands what Iíve been saying on this thing, that this is wrong, then thatís where this will go, this will go in a positive direction, because this is far bigger than he and I,î Walz said.
Thereís a lot of wisdom in that statement, much more than weíve heard from our present congressman.
I will give credit for Gutknecht for changing his position on the war in Iraq. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, as Emerson put it so well. But the cynic in me says that Gutknechtís change of heart came as much from what he is seeing and hearing from his constituents as it did from what he saw and heard in Iraq.

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