On the heels of a GQ article exploring Donald Rumsfeld’s lack of popularity amongst his Bush administration peers and his department’s use of biblical quotes to lead off the highly classified  “Worldwide Intelligence Update”, evidence has now emerged that Rumsfeld’s choice of “lead off” quotes were actually not limited to crusade-imagery-evoking Psalms.

The original memos available from GQ were the following:

The newly discovered versions, authored after the memos shown on GQ,  reveal a move away from the mere quotation of  biblical scriptures.  In the memo below Rumsfeld’s staff give us a glance into their idea of religious pluralism:

Not satisfied with seeking words of wisdom and encouragement in religion, Rumsfeld’s team looked to evoke mythical powers to motivate top pentagon and administration officials and lead the nation to victory:

 As the war progressed, the meanings of the lead off messages became less clear and a subject of much internal debate. Some thought that this memo was Rumsfeld’s way of telling the pentagon cafeteria staff that they needed to shape up:

But at a certain point, around the time that Donald Rumsfeld began mumbling on about known unknowns and unknown unknowns, things clearly seemed to have gone off the rails. One has a hard time deciphering the hidden motivational message in this memo:

Later still, Rumsfeld and his staff dugg deep to deliver the kind of wisdom and guidance needed to put the deepening conflict in perspective:

Check out what are friends at Satirical Political have to say about the Rumsfeld Memo