COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

GWOT and Newspeak

Words mean things, words are important, and when words we have grown used to using over the years are quietly replaced, or disappear altogether, one should put an ear to the rail to find out what exactly is coming down the tracks.

Take the GWOT for example.

The Global War on Terror is ending. Not on the battlefields of Iraq or Afghanistan (at least not yet) mind you, but in the 2008 Defense Budget:

The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror
from the 2008 defense budget. This is not because the war has been won, lost or
even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like
the phrase. A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008
bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should
be specific about military operations and “avoid using colloquialisms.”

Committee aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said dropping or
reducing references to the global war on terror could have many purposes,
including an effort to be more precise about military operations, but also has a
political element involving a disagreement over whether the war in Iraq is part
of the effort to combat terrorism or is actually a distraction from fighting
terrorists.

The United States' overarching strategy in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks is a topic worthy of vigorous debate. Many would argue that the U.S. squandered opportunities to utterly dismantle virulent terror networks when it turned its focus on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. However, the United States, primarily via the Bush administration, has never shied away from defining what this war is all about, as is evident from last year's National Security Strategy:

From the beginning, the War on Terror has been both a battle of arms and a
battle of ideas – a fight against the terrorists and against their murderous
ideology. In the short run, the fight involves using military force and other
instruments of national power to kill or capture the terrorists, deny them safe
haven or control of any nation; prevent them from gaining access to WMD; and cut
off their sources of support. In the long run, winning the war on terror means
winning the battle of ideas, for it is ideas that can turn the disenchanted into
murderers willing to kill innocent victims.

While President Bush may have erred thus far in the fight against global terrorism, his administration did a service in defining what the war is, and by creating an analog construct along the lines of the Cold War, so that successive administrations can comprehend the threat, protect society from it, and act to diminish it over time.

Liberals and conservatives, hawks and doves, disagreed often about how to fight this new, disparate, nebulous war of ideas, networks, bombs, beheadings, websites and fatwas; but now they cannot agree that there even is a war, and that the various actions being taken around the globe, even at this very moment, are part of a unified campaign.

One can argue that the drastic actions taken in what (at least for now) we call the GWOT (ie the establishment of the Guantanamo prison system, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan before that, the increased surveillance, the deployment of forces around the globe, et al) represented an increase in aggressive behavior and served to curtail civil liberrties at home to a level heretofore unknown in our liberal society (although those who lived through or studied the histories of past American conflicts would likely argue against this train of thought); but the banishment of terminology from documents, legislation, and eventually, common everyday reference, is hardly an admirable pursuit. Winston Smith, in the dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four, would likely have referred to those in a hurry to rush descriptive language out of the lexicon as goodthinkers.

Before he learned to love Big Brother, that is.

70 comments:

  1. MILWAUKEE (Associated Press) -- Presidential candidate Tommy Thompson said Wednesday that he wants the Iraqi government to vote on whether the U.S. should keep its troops there.

    "I'm confident they will, but ... if they do vote no _ they don't want us there _ we should get out," Thompson said, drawing applause.

    Thompson, who was health and human services secretary during President Bush's first term, made the comment during his first formal presidential campaign stop in his home state. He formally announced Sunday on "This Week" on ABC that he is seeking the Republican nomination for president.

    Thompson described himself as the only candidate with a commonsense approach to Iraq.

    He said he would work with Iraqi leaders to form 18 self-governing provinces that would operate under a national government. He also would encourage the Iraqi government to give each citizen a stake in the nation's oil reserves.

    "We must give the Iraqi people a stake in their nation and stability in their future," Thompson said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trish is that you? You went from pithy on an IV drip to verbose on steroids.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2164th: GWOT is out. Is TWAT in?

    Notice that not even elements of the Bush Administration mention "The Long War" anymore? The Donks are now framing the debate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Who do you want to be mad at?

    We can build a case against any of "them", or even ourselves.

    What is the President's objective in this series of local civil wars?

    If not to change our culture

    "... This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity -- a moment we must seize to change our culture. Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good. (Applause.) And we have a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace.

    -- a moment we must seize to change our culture.

    Not lacking in the vision
    just the ability to communicate of it. perfectly exampled here, by MC Rove.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wilsonizer:
    Hallelujah brother! You're back.

    Raymond Shaw thanks for the laugh.

    About the post: Democrat or EU Congress. They all think alike which is very similar to the thought processes of the ostrich.

    Actually, the idea of the ideological struggle is very true and it seems to have been an area in which we have been found lacking. The most recent Iranian kerfuffle demonstrates that Ahmadinejad understands the world stage better than we do. He is a skilled actor. His has skillfully portrayed himself and his country as sensible victims of the evil Zionist supporting, Western powers.

    We're still waiting to see some "shock and awe" in the hearts and minds campaign.

    One way or another, we need to figure how to reach the moderate Muslim world.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Often times posting can be a challenge.

    Once there was a poster here at the EB who said she was going on vacation and still posted.

    In fact she must have been so happy to be on vacation the she posted within one or two days of going on vacation AND

    she posted a sixteen paragraph article 4x in the same post, making it REALLY,REALLY long.

    Perhaps the Wi-Fi at The Betty Ford Clinic has a few bugs in it.
    I hope they treat the problems.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Habu, please do not go there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "and it reflects the evolution in Bush's own thinking"
    ---
    Talk about an Oxymoron,
    ...or contradiction in terms.
    President Pretzelebrain.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Back on topic:

    "The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us."
    -Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter

    ReplyDelete
  10. TGWOE
    The Great War of Errors

    ReplyDelete
  11. "
    He told reporters that he only realised what had happened when he looked up to see his two dogs, Barney and Spot, looking down at him.

    "I hit the deck and woke up and there were Barney and Spot showing a lot of concern," he said.
    ---
    Glad everything turned out all right in

    The End

    (That's All Folks)

    ReplyDelete
  12. UIaLI

    Use It and Lose It

    If you use the magic word,
    you'll lose all your precious bodily fluids.

    ---
    I got a pretty fair idea that something doggone important is goin' on back there.
    And I got a fair idea the kinda personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'.

    Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human bein's if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelin's about nuclear combat.

    I want you to remember one thing, the folks back home is a-countin' on you and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down.

    I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing's over with.

    That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or your creed.

    Now let's get this thing on the hump - we got some flyin' to do

    ReplyDelete
  13. TLS
    The Long Slog
    ---
    "Of course, if travel regulations change, instant shave gel and other newfangled goods could become outmoded. For now, however, Ms. Harmon said, “It is unlikely that we will make changes to the liquid/gel ban in the near future.

    These changes represent a long-term, sustainable level of security for the T.S.A., passengers and our aviation partners.” "

    ReplyDelete
  14. Luckily,
    My Wife just found Strangelove on DVD last week.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nancy, how many times have I told you guys that I don't want no horsing around on the airplane?
    ---
    Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones.

    You sure you got today's codes?

    ReplyDelete
  16. General Jack D. Ripper:

    "Your Muzzie has no regard for human life.
    Not even his own."

    ---
    General Jack D. Ripper:
    Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?

    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake:
    No, I don't think I do, sir, no.

    ReplyDelete
  17. General Jack D. Ripper:
    He said war was too important to be left to the generals.
    When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right.
    But today, war is too important to be left to politicians.

    They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought.

    I can no longer sit back and allow Multicultural infiltration, PC indoctrination, Wahabbist subversion and the international Globalist Multicultural conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

    ReplyDelete
  18. President Merkin Muffley:
    General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand.
    I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.

    General "Buck" Turgidson:
    That's right, sir, you are the only person authorized to do so.
    And although I, uh, hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like, uh, Nancy Paulosi exceeded her authority.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What's "Egad" in Spanish with a Wahabbist Accent?

    ReplyDelete
  20. President Bush:
    Uh, so let's get going, there's no other choice. God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids.
    God bless you all"

    General "Buck" Turgidson:
    "This man is obviously a psychotic."

    Condi:
    "We-he-ell, uh, I'd like to hold off judgement on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in."

    General Turgidson!
    "When you instituted the human reliability tests, you *assured* me there was *no* possibility of such a thing *ever* occurring!"

    Condi:
    "Well, I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir."

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dick Cheney:
    " You mean people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?"

    Don Rumsfeld:
    "It would not be difficult, Mein Fuhrer.
    Nuclear reactors could...
    I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President...

    nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely."

    ReplyDelete
  22. "While President Bush may have erred thus far in the fight against global terrorism, his administration did a service in defining what the war is, and by creating an analog construct along the lines of the Cold War"
    ---
    He later did a monstrous DISSERVICE, by reverting to type:
    Mr Rogers goes to the Whitehouse to play, excercise with Condi, and emit ever more inane Compassionate Happytalk.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness,
    I know we can overcome evil with greater good. (Applause.)

    And we have a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace.
    "

    Sorry Mates, we have a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Compare:
    "God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids.
    God bless you all
    "

    ...no point trying to Contrast.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Polish up singing Kum bay Ya?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Doesn't take much immagination these days to write something totally Absurd.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There was an active debate throughout the Vietnam War over the terminology used to describe the war.
    The left ALWAYS characterized it as a civil war.
    The right, knowing that neither the US or South Vietnam had signed the Geneva Convention of 1954 NEVER characterized it as a civil war knowing that North Vietnam's aggression was funded and abetted by the Soviet Union and China.

    By not signing onto a bad agreement the South was not obligated to hold elections that the North demanded and the North Vietnamese Communists began to attack,first using the NLF, as a proxy.

    The anti-war factions inside the US continued to characterize the war as a civil war when in fact it was a war of one communist nation against a non-communist nation.

    We know in the current situation in the ME that a free and sovereign nation, Iraq, is being attacked by terrorists (similar to the NLF attacking the sovereign nation of South Vietnam). We know these terrorist are "stateless", as was the NLF, but being trained and supplied by other nations, whose purposes are to impose chaos and radical Whabbist Islam, and their will on the free people of Iraq. All tribes and sections of the free Iraq nation are represented in their government.

    So it atavistic and incorrect to characterize this as a "civil war" in Iraq. Those who buy into the utilization of that terminology are leftests in the same manner that the Jane Fonda leftests characterized the Vietnam war.
    Don't buy it.
    You have an incubating and developing democracy being attack by those from the outside who do not want to see a democracy in a Muslim country so strategically located.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  29. 2164th,

    I was have noticed with chagrin the Bush admins push of the 'fear' buttons ever since 911. I think Zbig got it right in the paragraph you cited. I'm also struck by FoxNews continued use of *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED* in their crawl, over and over and over and over. It reminds me of the Fire Safety warnings they post in the Rockies but at least there you have specific things you can do to be careful, but what pray tell is the use of the continual *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED* crawling about my tv.

    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*
    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*
    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*

    praise our glorius leader

    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*
    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*
    *TERROR ALERT - ELEVATED*

    praise our glorius leader

    ReplyDelete
  30. I heard on Glenn Beck tonight that the Democrat strategy is to isolate Iraq as Bush's war. Referring to individual theaters instead of a global struggle, Iraq can be portrayed as separate from the GWOT.

    Doing away with the GWOT also falls in line with the Supreme's ruling that Afghanistan was not a conflict international in nature.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Once upon a time a blog administrator admonished a blogger against going to certain places.

    Now this blogger didn't mention any names, just reviewed a recent senario.
    Free speech for some,but don't use certain topics ,language,review past posts....yes the EB gone PC where if you engage in open debate one person can yell "shit" and other phrases pointing directly at a blogger's thesis and the blogger and the target blogger is the on admonished. Orwellian.
    Don't go there.
    If ya can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  32. LEFTEST EB BLOGGERS DON'T READ THIS.

    There was an active debate throughout the Vietnam War over the terminology used to describe the war.
    The left ALWAYS characterized it as a civil war.
    The right, knowing that neither the US or South Vietnam had signed the Geneva Convention of 1954 NEVER characterized it as a civil war knowing that North Vietnam's aggression was funded and abetted by the Soviet Union and China.

    By not signing onto a bad agreement the South was not obligated to hold elections that the North demanded and the North Vietnamese Communists began to attack,first using the NLF, as a proxy.

    The anti-war factions inside the US continued to characterize the war as a civil war when in fact it was a war of one communist nation against a non-communist nation.

    We know in the current situation in the ME that a free and sovereign nation, Iraq, is being attacked by terrorists (similar to the NLF attacking the sovereign nation of South Vietnam). We know these terrorist are "stateless", as was the NLF, but being trained and supplied by other nations, whose purposes are to impose chaos and radical Whabbist Islam, and their will on the free people of Iraq. All tribes and sections of the free Iraq nation are represented in their government.

    So it atavistic and incorrect to characterize this as a "civil war" in Iraq. Those who buy into the utilization of that terminology are leftests in the same manner that the Jane Fonda leftests characterized the Vietnam war.
    Don't buy it.
    You have an incubating and developing democracy being attack by those from the outside who do not want to see a democracy in a Muslim country so strategically located.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Wretch:
    "Swap
    And so in the end may have been a prisoner swap after all. The Washington Post reports that the fifteen British sailors have been released. "Ahmadinejad's announcement came after Iran's state media reported that an Iranian envoy would be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq. Another Iranian diplomat, separately seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen in Iraq, was released and returned Tuesday to Tehran."

    ReplyDelete
  34. Ms. Pelosi was very much underestimated by the Administration. I believe I see her political strategy and it is brilliant even if she is not.

    Her design is attack the areas in foreign affairs where Bush is perceived as stubborn and unimaginative.Syria was a logical place to start.

    Is she doing it to make Bush look bad or to make things better for the US?

    Will it be on to Iran and Venezuela?

    ReplyDelete
  35. bobalharb

    Nan's trip clearly violated the Logan Act if she discussed ANY foreign policy with Assad or anyone else. Same for the rest of the delegation.
    The Administration does not have the political capital to do anything so it won't but foreigh policy negotitations are the EXCLUSIVE DOMAIN of the Executive Branch.
    She's playing pure politics to the detriment of allowing the administration to try and control US foreign policy.
    The Democratic Party is doing exactly what they did in Vietnam. They are undermining at every possible opportunity to undermine the President, which has the ancillary effect of helping our adversaries morale while reducing our fighting men and womens morale...it is probably the biggest single reason there remains a very definitive cleavage between the left and right in this country in the Baby Boom Generation.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Dan,
    God is this the stupidest geopolitical situation ever or what.
    4/04/2007 12:46:00 PM

    jj mollo said...
    It's certainly no gift. I think they made a mistake taking the hostages in the first place, but they have turned it to their political advantage. Just as the West was beginning to gear up psychologically for another 444-day standoff, just as a certain amount of resolve begins to infuse our spirits, then they take off the pressure. Moderate anti-war types breathe a sigh of relief and say to themselves, see they're reasonable people after all. A punch followed by a caress. Think of it as Stockholm Syndrome by proxy. A-jad's timing is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I cannot plant vegetables as there are too many deer and too few opportunities to kill them.

    I do get pleasure with my pond and non-edible flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "The Democratic Party is doing exactly what they did in Vietnam."
    ---
    It's the SAME GD People!
    ...only Hanoi Jane seems to have lost some spunk.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Bob, that is an amazing photo, magnificant.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Bob: Name reminds me of:
    A Tour of Loihi
    ...and see maps, rocks and wildlife of Hawaii's newest volcano.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Deuce,
    You just have Presidental Envy.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Occupation Springs Eternal:

    "this aint over by a long shot...

    3rd carrier group should be in area in a week

    french carrier already there

    british, where are they?

    get the popcorn ready "

    ReplyDelete
  43. So GWOT is a goner. GWOT is passé.

    GWOT is forbidden language. GWOT is just another way of saying Bush was right, and we'll have none of that around here now.

    As Nancy Pelosi said, there's a new Congress in town, Mr. President, and GWOT is not spoken here.


    Global War on Terror

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hualalai: The 1800-1801 eruption.

    Click on the image to view full-scale This eruption produced very fluid, high velocity lava flows that entered the ocean off western Hawaii. Overall, 5 vents issued alkalic basalt lavas, with 2 of these vents producing flows that reached the sea. The total volume of erupted lava has been estimated as >300 million m³. This eruption brought abundant xenoliths (xeno = foreign; lith = rock) up from the mantle source that originally produced the lava (see below). The highest elevation vent produced an enormous aa flow (the Kaupulehu flow) that entered the ocean as 2 discrete lobes. One of these lobes destroyed a Hawaiian village in its path. This eruption at Hualalai is believed to be concurrent with an eruption at neighboring Mauna Loa volcano. Additionally, Hualalai has been essentially simultaneously active with both Mauna Loa and Kilauea in the not so distant past (note: although, we do not in fact know if any eruptions occured simulataneously, we do know that these three volcanoes have been active during much of the last 100 to 200 thousand years).
    In the image to the left, the two main lobes of the 1800-1801 eruption are displayed (Kaupulehu in orange, Huehue in red). Also shown (in brown) are the 100000 year old trachytes of Puu Waawaa), the 1859 lava flow from nearby Mauna Loa (in grey), and the Kahaluu water shaft (marked by an X""), where Hualalai generated tholeiitic basalts are found only 75 feet below the surface.

    ReplyDelete
  45. One of the critical facts the Vietnam anit-war crowd refused to face was that Ho Chi Minh was a dedicated communist, trained in Moscow to develop cadres and cells to foment unrest in South Vietnam.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Bob,
    It is an amazing place.
    Fred and His wife come from clear on the other side of the country quite often!

    ReplyDelete
  47. Yeah,
    Luckily, tho, Habu,
    the Muzzies have nothing but the best of intentions for us.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Sam,
    You left out that she screeched at him to
    "Calm Down"

    ReplyDelete
  49. Few things surprise me any longer, but seeing the 180 the EB has taken is interesting to watch.

    Teddy Roosevelts "Man in the Arena" is too apropos to not use.

    Teddy Roosevelt - To the Man in the Arena

    "It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

    Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

    ReplyDelete
  50. "so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
    Teddy Roosevelt

    ReplyDelete
  51. Please do not use the anagram I coined for the current ME situation,

    TWAT

    The War Against Terror..
    it's too Habuian for this current group.

    Thanks,
    Habu

    ReplyDelete
  52. I'm all in favor of a more Habuian response than Bush's.

    Bobal, or Habu,
    Whats the name of the Brilliant Astronomer guy that is a Parapalegic?

    ReplyDelete
  53. No, whit the correct answer is "Who is Stephen Hawking?"

    ReplyDelete
  54. "One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear.
    Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.
    "
    ---
    Exactly!
    Huh?

    ReplyDelete
  55. bobalharb,

    Gone a couple of days on that Passover business, you know: Why is this night different from anyother night?

    You were correct, the law is after me, but that will take another 38 days to catch-up.

    ReplyDelete
  56. bobalharb,

    Are you feeling pressure around your ears?

    ReplyDelete
  57. bobalharb,

    re: legs of Joss Stone

    When struggling with something as meaningful as the best female legs on earth, I go to the polls. According to this one, actress Kelly Brook is so acclaimed. Like me you may have discovered other assets of equal acclaim. For instance, I thought photo #6 captured Ms. Brook in her totality.

    Poll: Actress Kelly Brook has 'best legs'

    ReplyDelete
  58. bobalharb,

    The ringing can indicate vascular constriction. In the interest of comity at such times, I try to smile warmly.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Bob, you are a funny guy. i often get a real chuckle when I clean up this place at night.

    ReplyDelete