Lately the media has been consumed with Joe the Plumber and his short interaction with Barack Obama about Obama’s tax plan. I had my own moment with my Congressman, Lee Terry. Let me describe what happened.

I belong to a local service club and Terry came to speak to the club. He made a short talk and then started taking questions. I was his fourth question. I’ll give you the dialogue as I remember it and then make some explanations. Terry had commented in his talk on the need to take actions to keep us safe from people who wish America harm.

Me: Congressman, you mentioned people who wish America harm. What do you think Al Qaeda considers America’s Center of Gravity to be?

Terry: (Long Pause) What do you mean by the Center of Gravity?

Me: You don’t know what the concept of the Center of Gravity is?

Terry: No, (joking) I took high school physics but I don’t recall studying that.

Me: The concept of the Center of Gravity is a strategic and military term that says if you can find the key element of your opponent to throw off balance by finding their tipping point, then you can defeat them.

Terry: Well, then by that definition, I would say Al Qaeda would consider our economy as the Center of Gravity. If they could upset that, then they would really be on the way to defeating us. (Looking immediately to take another question and change the subject.)

Me: How would you say they’re doing?

Terry: Al Qaeda is not having any impact on our economy.

Me: (Incredulous knowing the state of the economy and the fact a contributing factor is the debt we have run up fighting the war in Iraq) What?

Terry: Of course, that’s why we need to keep our economy strong by (returned to the points he made in his talk, concluded with) making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Me: What tax cuts? No one in this room got a tax cut. A true tax cut would be when the cost of government is reduced and the savings are passed on to the taxpayers. We owe more money than we’ve ever owed before. In fact, it’s gone up by 77% since 2001.

Terry: Well, why don’t we talk later? Our time is almost up and I promised this lady I would let her ask a question.

I let it go at that point. Here is my evaluation of this exchange.

When I asked the first question, probably 99% of the people in the room had the same reaction you did reading this. They didn’t know what the Center of Gravity concept was, but they knew who Al Qaeda was and they wanted to know the answer. They know I’m a retired Army Officer, so they knew I must be going somewhere with this.

It’s OK that 99% of the room (and you) didn’t know the concept. It’s not OK to be a congressman with 10 years in the Congress, (7 of those years with the nation at war, portraying yourself and your party as stalwart defenders of freedom, having made trips to the war zone to see what’s going on, etc.) and not know what the concept is.

The capstone skill of Federal office, the thing that makes service at that level different, is the requirement to oversee National Defense. So for Terry not to know the concept is inexcusable. It demonstrates his lack of intellectual curiosity and the shallowness of his perspective towards his job. My take is if you are required to oversee the actions of Generals, then you should know the fundamentals we teach Officer Trainees to become Officers. That includes the concept of the Center of Gravity and the Principles of War.

Not knowing those things, to me, is like a doctor not being able to name the major systems of the body (skin, skeletal) or a financial planner not knowing terms like Return on Investment or Price-Earnings Ratio.

Here’s another highlight of this exchange. One of the principles I have is this. The better the questions you ask yourself, the better the answers you get for solving the problems in your life. Shouldn’t one of the questions you should ask yourself about an enemy is, “What does my enemy see as my primary vulnerability?” If you know the answer to that question, then you know how best to defend yourself.

When Terry didn’t know how to answer my original question, he was made to look foolish. Once he had the definition of Center of Gravity, he definitely looked foolish (or at least unknowledgeable), so he sought to redeem himself by giving an honest answer to the question without considering the implication of his answer.

The reality is Terry guessed and got the answer right. Al Qaeda has long said our Center of Gravity is our economy. If our economy can be upset, then America can be defeated. To be sure, some of the problems we are having with our economy are self inflicted. The first self inflicted wound, however, was fighting the wars we’re fighting without arranging to pay for the war as we went along. The bottom line is we have been doing exactly what Al Qaeda wanted us to do. People like Lee Terry have aided and abetted George W. Bush in taking this disastrous approach. Regrettably, the first time Terry appears to have considered this essential question is seven years after 9/11 when I asked the question of him.

When I vote, I intend to vote against sending Terry back to Washington. His lack of knowledge and curiosity coupled with his shallowness of thought say it’s time for him to come home and resume his law practice. If you live in Nebraska’s 2d District, I hope you will join me.