Kicking Yourself in the Mouth
As the adage goes, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. What happens when your words have been written for you by another party when they convey severely unintended subtlety and nuance?
From slate.com
“Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure, and that would be irresponsible,” Bush said after issuing the second veto of his presidency.
Let’s pick this apart for a second.
What the President intended to say: Setting a specific time for withdrawal from Iraq will say that we are not committed to winning the war, which is our responsibility no matter its term.
What the President actually said: We have already failed. By setting a specific date for withdrawal, it will be a notice to the world that I have officially failed. Anything that can be done before that pre-set date will constitute the failure.
I like to think that the President has two views on the war’s end. One is that we win, though it has not yet been determined what a win actually is. Its nebulous state is purposeful as it can be reshaped to give credit on tangible events such as elections and whisked away in light of attacks in supposedly secure areas. It can be applied post-presidency, the salve that the RNC and Bush II library folks are counting on.
If we leave, we haven’t lost, we’ve failed. A failure is saying that you tried and didn’t come out victorious. It’s the losers way of padding their fall. The p.c. little league idea of everyone is great and the fact that you tried is the most important thing in the world.
Well, you can’t head out to the diamond with 6 players and 4 four gloves for them and call it a responsible effort at winning the game. We’re not too many innings deep, but I think calling the game and sorting it out from the front office is the smartest move we can make.
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:11 am
hmmm
the little league sounds about right for gwb
it’s scary when you give the inmates control
t