Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Rumsfeld Speaks, We Translate
So Donald Rumsfeld met the troops in Kuwait today, and had to answer questions, including a few tough ones. The SecDef is famous for sentences laden with passive voice, subordinate clauses, and elaborate hypotheticals, but it's easy enough to translate him for an English-speaking audience:
Rummy on why the troops are forced to scrounge for armor to upgrade their vehicles: "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want . . . You can have all the armor in the world on a tank, and it can [still] be blown up."
Translation: "This is the hand you're dealt. Live with it, and if you die with it, well, you may have gotten capped some other way anyhow, so que sera sera."
Rummy on stop-loss orders that prohibit soldiers from leaving the service even when their tours are up: "It's basically a sound principle. It's nothing new; it's been well understood . . . . My guess is it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used."
Translation: "We own your ass. Get used to it."
Dick Cheney also met the troops yesterday, over in Afghanistan. One of the bloggers reported this morning that soldiers were frisked before being admitted to the hall--which, if true, may say more than the Bush Administration means for us to hear about the military's opinion of the commanders.
Recommended Reading: Juan Cole notes that it took 600 UN election workers to set up the recent elections in Afghanistan. Number on the ground in Iraq with six weeks to go before the elections there: 35. Oh yeah, this is gonna be great.
There used to be, before it got lost in the government's collective overdose on neocon testosterone, a concept called "statesmanship." Daily Kos offers a contemporary example of it from Russ Feingold who, if statesmanship still mattered to Americans in picking their leaders, would be presidential material.
Shopping for Christmas, or just going out to dinner? Go here first.
And finally, a sign of the times: I had to read this twice to make sure the writer is just kidding--and I'm still not entirely sure he is.
So Donald Rumsfeld met the troops in Kuwait today, and had to answer questions, including a few tough ones. The SecDef is famous for sentences laden with passive voice, subordinate clauses, and elaborate hypotheticals, but it's easy enough to translate him for an English-speaking audience:
Rummy on why the troops are forced to scrounge for armor to upgrade their vehicles: "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want . . . You can have all the armor in the world on a tank, and it can [still] be blown up."
Translation: "This is the hand you're dealt. Live with it, and if you die with it, well, you may have gotten capped some other way anyhow, so que sera sera."
Rummy on stop-loss orders that prohibit soldiers from leaving the service even when their tours are up: "It's basically a sound principle. It's nothing new; it's been well understood . . . . My guess is it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used."
Translation: "We own your ass. Get used to it."
Dick Cheney also met the troops yesterday, over in Afghanistan. One of the bloggers reported this morning that soldiers were frisked before being admitted to the hall--which, if true, may say more than the Bush Administration means for us to hear about the military's opinion of the commanders.
Recommended Reading: Juan Cole notes that it took 600 UN election workers to set up the recent elections in Afghanistan. Number on the ground in Iraq with six weeks to go before the elections there: 35. Oh yeah, this is gonna be great.
There used to be, before it got lost in the government's collective overdose on neocon testosterone, a concept called "statesmanship." Daily Kos offers a contemporary example of it from Russ Feingold who, if statesmanship still mattered to Americans in picking their leaders, would be presidential material.
Shopping for Christmas, or just going out to dinner? Go here first.
And finally, a sign of the times: I had to read this twice to make sure the writer is just kidding--and I'm still not entirely sure he is.
