Amy's Robot

More Rumsfeldian Semantics

I don't know about you, but Donald Rumsfeld had an epiphanic Thanksgiving. He realized that calling the Iraqi insurgents "insurgents" lends them a legitimacy that he doesn't feel they deserve.

"I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe," he said at a news conference today. "These people don't have a legitimate gripe." It is no longer legitimate to not want your country to be occupied by a foreign military, I guess.

Can you guess what word he thinks we should use to indicate the Iraqi insurgents? Guess. Terrorists! What else?

This bold new semantic initiative caused confusion immediately for the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who also spoke at today's news conference. After calling the Iraqi insurgents "insurgents" twice, he sheepishly said, "I have to use the word `insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now."

You and me both, dude.

See also: Iraq not a quagmire.

categories: Politics, War and Security
posted by amy at 4:31 PM | #