Another leak

Another Leak:

This time, the full text of a secret memo is printed in the New York Times. It's OK, though, so we're told by RedState.

The Bush Administration in the past has rightly decried the leaking of classified information from intelligence sources whose motives may or may not have been largely partisan in nature. But the deliberate leak yesterday of a classified analysis of Iraqi's embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley should be seen in the context of statecraft and not necessarily the typical Washington bureaucratic game of "gotchya" - a difference that may be lost on some but is telling nonetheless.

The distinction isn't lost on me. Certainly this allows Bush to frame the meeting with Maliki along very honest lines -- perhaps more honest ones than the forms of diplomacy would usually allow. The memo is good, I think: insightful, direct, and focused on suggestions for actual steps that can be taken to improve the situation.

Surely the summit will be improved by an open and direct statement of where the White House's internal deliberations are.

I disagree, though, that the memo targets "an audience of one," Maliki himself. I think it is meant to give an impression to the People of the United States. It shows a willingness to ask hard questions, demand firm answers, and suggest positive steps for change. That can only be meant to shore up support for the administration's approach on Iraq, which has been criticized for being apparently unwilling to do any of those things.

Insofar as that is the case, let me go on record as saying: I appreciate being 'let in on' the deliberations, and indeed it does do something to shore up my confidence.

I would, however, have had my confidence shorn up far more by a President who had the guts to put this out officially, with his own approval clearly stated. Where's that cowboy diplomacy? A cowboy is meant to speak his mind, when he speaks at all.

It's a mistake to appear to legitimize the culture of oathbreaking by making use of its forms. If you wanted to declassify this, declassify it!