Saturday, December 03, 2005
Parsing Insurgency
The President's "Plan for Victory" (which was not a plan) address on Wednesday was an excellent lesson in political rhetoric. Spoken before an audience that is prone to favor him--The Naval Academy; he is the commander in chief, after all. The President performed a slight of hand, changing what we call the people we are fighting in Iraq from the "the insurgents" or "the insurgency" to:
". . .The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. "
(The entire speech is linked)
To define the terms--the rejectionists ( the largest group)--the group who are rejecting democracy (hmmm, maybe you can not impose democracy on a people?). The second group still support the disposed dictator (currently on trial wearing professorial garb) . And, last the terrorists (who we may have created).
Of course, the American people are going to want to defend against democracy-haters, people who support evil dictators, and terrorists. Thus, with a little bit of parsing the war on Iraq continues.
Bush is hoping for Americans' short term memory loss--why did we invade Iraq? What were those reasons? He is hoping to drum up support for this ill-advised (even his Daddy said not to go), ill-planned and ill-executed.
As I write this one of my students is on his way to Iraq. Please note I do support the troops, I wish our government did ( he said he had to spend $2000 to outfit himself and he is a ROTC Marine lance corporal). It is this administration's total disregard of democracy that I do not support, as the victims' of 9/11 have said: "Not in My Name."
". . .The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. "
(The entire speech is linked)
To define the terms--the rejectionists ( the largest group)--the group who are rejecting democracy (hmmm, maybe you can not impose democracy on a people?). The second group still support the disposed dictator (currently on trial wearing professorial garb) . And, last the terrorists (who we may have created).
Of course, the American people are going to want to defend against democracy-haters, people who support evil dictators, and terrorists. Thus, with a little bit of parsing the war on Iraq continues.
Bush is hoping for Americans' short term memory loss--why did we invade Iraq? What were those reasons? He is hoping to drum up support for this ill-advised (even his Daddy said not to go), ill-planned and ill-executed.
As I write this one of my students is on his way to Iraq. Please note I do support the troops, I wish our government did ( he said he had to spend $2000 to outfit himself and he is a ROTC Marine lance corporal). It is this administration's total disregard of democracy that I do not support, as the victims' of 9/11 have said: "Not in My Name."
