By: David G. Johnson
U.S. Foreign Aid Watch Organization
Lately, there have been a lot of decks of cards going around. When it comes to playing any game with the United States it may pay to take a close look at what cards are being played. Just like you wouldn't want to play a game of marbles on the 'level playing field of trade' that the United States refers to, you might want to start 'counting trump' when you play cards with the United States. The United States has an vast array of trump cards when it comes to justifying any and all of its actions. The best part about their policies is that the American People are not known to be able to count very well, so the United States can play the same cards over and over.
The most powerful of all trump cards that the United States has is the "National Security" card. It trumps everything and it doesn't matter how many times you play it. Want to imprison someone indefinitely without those interfering lawyers - no problem - National Security.
The latest time that the "National Security" card was played was when the United States said it was excluding countries that weren't coalition partners from getting in on the $18.6 billion dollars of U.S. Taxpayers money for rebuilding Iraq. Wolfowitz could have taken the hand by just stopping with "it was in the public interest", after all that is all the law required. However, he decided to play the "National Security" card when he added that the "President has made clear that the Coalition's actions to reconstruct Iraq are indispensable for national security and national defense purposes". Clearly, this was a time when you give your card partner a hard glare and kick them under the table. "Why did you have to play that one, you had already trumped it with a "public interest" card.
Yes, there are many trump cards that a seasoned foreign affairs person needs to be aware of.
The King, Queen, Jack and the Ten all carry the same relative weight as they do in regular playing cards. It is interesting to note that you can take any of the phrases and juxtapose words and they will always have the same effect. Nobody will notice whether you invoke economic goals or economic priorities when you justify any action that the administration has taken. The end result will be that your actions will be unquestionable and totally unverifiable. After all, the president doesn't lead by following polls. When the polls are against your actions you call it 'leadership' and when they are with your actions you call it a 'mandate'.
The next row of cards are handy when you want to cover up something that is disquieting. Tony Blair has gotten a lot of mileage out the classified intelligence card. He is still sticking by his guns when he says Iraq was trying to get Uranium from Africa. The nice part about the classified intelligence card is that you have ultimate flexibility in its use. You simply start out with "We have classified evidence that" and you can follow it with anything like "Saddam hid all of the weapons of mass destruction in invisible spaceships from Mars, that's why they are so hard to find". If someone leaks anything to the contrary, you simply claim that it's just a 'another' political attack and then you promptly play the "Conducting Investigation" card in order to find out who leaked the document. Of course you could also use the "Formulating Action Plan" in order to keep any more contrary information from being leaked.
The six and five are often used in conjunction with each other to describe situations in which you have no idea what you are going do. In order to be successful you need to first play the six by saying "we are watching the situation closely" and follow up with "we are considering our options". A common mistake is to imply that you are considering 'their' options. Considering the fact that anyone other than you might have choices is a very dangerous precedent. It is important that you let everyone know that the only choices that are available are the ones you will allow them to have.
The four is a very valuable card when it comes to reporting news from the 'front'. They can be broadcasting images of a helicopter being hit by a rocket and you can still say that they are "unconfirmed" reports. It is important when you play this card to make sure that you always add something that you know will be verified. For example, if a helicopter is shot down, you say "it made a hard landing".
The "Don't Ask Me" card is only useful when someone asks you a 'tough' question and it is about something from another department.
Here is an example from the December 10, 2003 briefing by the State Department in answer to "why did you decide to exclude members who were -- people who were not members of the coalition? -- What is your reasoning for that -- from the prime contract?":
On the question of why did we exclude, I have to tell you that, first of all, the detailed regulations, and therefore the lists, were not drawn up in this Department. The memo that we're all talking about is a Defense Department memo, and any more detailed discussion of what is exactly in that memo you can direct over there.
The final card is a very powerful card but it must be used carefully. It is very important that you not allow the person asking the question to follow up with another question. Amnesty International has called on the Bush Administration to clarify whether it has adopted a policy of holding the relatives of suspects in order to force the surrender of pursued individuals. Consider this example when General Myers was
asked whether the detention of al-Douri's family was a potential violation of the Geneva Convention and other international law:
GEN. MYERS: We'll get you an answer on the legality of that. I'm sure we wouldn't do anything illegal. But let us look at that and get you an answer on that.
Amnesty International issued a
press release regarding the same issue in which it stated :
The organization noted that the 2003 Department of State report on human rights practices criticized several nations for the practice of detaining a suspect's family members with this intent.
Of course, General Myers could simply play the "Not My Department Card".
