1115.org

Jennifer Davis has managed to make headlines by speaking out strongly against the Pentagon decision to extend the deployment of the 172nd Stryker Brigade in Baghdad for another 120 days.

It occurs to me that if her husband were to be killed in action or sustain serious injuries in the next 120 days, the Pentagon would have a total PR disaster on its hands. It would also be a major setback for every Republican running for re-election this fall. Not to mention that devoted and much-loved Democrat, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman.

Unless Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is micromanaging things at an unsuspectedly obsessive level, this has probably also occurred to those who decide who in the 172nd Stryker Brigade will do what and to whom on any given day. (Rumsfeld, of course, is congenitally incapable of realizing even something as simple as this. He is, after all, the guy who didn’t realize that excluding reporters from the meeting with 172nd Stryker Brigade families would just motivate disgruntled families to record the meeting and share it with reporters.)

I’m not suggesting for a minute that Jennifer Davis spoke out the way she did in order to build a protective shield around her husband. But clearly her actions could have precisely that unintended effect. By putting herself in the limelight, she may just have guaranteed that her husband will be returned to her safe and sound and in one piece.

And any day now, she may realize this. So may a lot of other military wives and parents.

I doubt very much if Rumsfeld – who declared himself to be “enormously pleased” that he came down to Fort Wainwright in Anchorage, Alaska to meet the 172nd Stryker Brigade families – will be very amused by what might happen next. Not to mention every Republican running for re-election this fall. And, last but not least, the famous devoted Democrat.