Hard Words, Soft Words, Crap Words

Nobody should be surprised that the Bush Administration is hypocritical and inconsistent, in this case by their toying with "softer" words to describe the war on terror after taking Democrats' "softer" words and concepts out of context both during the 2004 election campaign and in other venues of opportunism, most recently through Karl Rove's blathering. What I am surprised about is how many otherwise intelligent people fall for such rhetorical excrement every time Bush, Rove or others squeeze it out. Bush himself briefly called the struggle unwinnable and always (for obvious reasons) uses the language of permanence describing it. But the way they take the other side to task every time someone dares acknowledge any nuances and complexities is just disgusting. So here they are doing the same thing to themselves...

GRAPEVINE, Tex. (Aug. 3) - President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at war."
...
In recent public appearances, Mr. Rumsfeld and senior military officers have avoided formulations using the word "war," and some of Mr. Bush's top advisers have suggested that the administration wanted to jettison what had been its semiofficial wording of choice, "the global war on terror."
In an interview last week about the new wording, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said that the conflict was "more than just a military war on terror" and that the United States needed to counter "the gloomy vision" of the extremists and "offer a positive alternative."
But administration officials became concerned when some news reports linked the change in language to signals of a shift in policy. At the same time, Mr. Bush, by some accounts, told aides that he was not happy with the new phrasing, a change of tone from the wording he had consistently used since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
It is not clear whether the new language embraced by other administration officials was adopted without Mr. Bush's approval or whether he reversed himself after the change was made. Either way, he planted himself on Wednesday firmly on the side of framing the conflict primarily in military terms and appeared intent on emphasizing that there had been no change in American policy. [The New York Times]