Viewpoints
Worthless Rhetorical Phrases
By David Yates
July 16, 2007
Monday PM
"Staying the Course" requires a course. The first thing
I learned about navigation is that a course requires both a point
of departure and a destination. An expression we used to use
that describes the administration's way of thinking is "steering
on the jackstaff". Another way to put it would be to "follow
the pointy end of the boat" until either you run out of
fuel (ie,, Congress cuts off funding) or you run aground, which
is pretty much what we have done.
"Patience" is another ill used term meaning, apparently,
to wait until the dead horse we have been beating gets up and
wins the race. To date, 3611 US soldiers have run out of the
capacity for patience while George W. Bush is staying the course
from behind his well armored desk.
I am, however, proud of the Congress who have decided to actually
work after hours and who may even feel compelled to show up at
their dusty desks in the Capitol to show their "support
for our troops"--that is the ones that are left after the
Congress thinks, debates and grows slowly, increasingly concerned
over their poll numbers back home.
Finally, there is, "cut and run" implying cowardice,
but in fact meaning to do the right thing in the face of a shameful
reality. The administration "cut and ran" the first
time they lied to the world to justify their actions in Iraq.
If they couldn't tell the truth, then they were WRONG. If this
war in Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 it could and should
have been proven.
David Yates
david.dayates[at]gmail.com
Long Beach, CA
Received July 16, 2007 - Published
July 16, 2007
About: "I am 62 years
old, that is, old enough to remember America as it was. I served
8 years in the military (having enlisted before the Vietnam War
in the Coast Guard) a great deal of which time was served in
various parts of Alaska. I helped put out the Sitka fire in 1966--
not alone, of course. I retired from civilian federal service
with various branches of the Defense Department in 1996. My expertise
derives from being a citizen who knows the value of staying informed
in order to fulfill my duties as a voter. I don't know everything,
but I do my best."
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