Winning the War of Words (Page 2 of 2)

It was a showdown among Republicans for a week or ten days, and then, with the shadow of November elections looming above them, they came to a meeting of the minds and hammered out an agreement that “gives the President the power he needs,” and, probably just a lucky coincidence, preserves McCain’s standing in the Republican party as front-runner for the next Presidential race.

Does that make you feel proud to be an American? Will you remember, when some other nation or group captures a U.S. citizen and their interrogator decides to use “the power he needs” to get information—will you remember that we are the ones who set that standard? Will you remember next time someone asks you “why do they hate us?” that you know at least one reason they might?

I heard McCain interviewed just after the compromise on torture tactics was announced. He said we have gained valuable information that saved lives using some of these methods. The interviewer asked, “Can you give us a specific instance?” No, McCain said, but the President was “negotiating in good faith,” and “we just have to take him at his word.”

I was stunned. On the basis of what evidence do we take the Bush White House at its word? The existence of WMD in Iraq? The claim that Social Security was in an urgent crisis? The bold lie, contradicting the consensus wisdom of all 16 intelligence agencies that we are winning the war on terror?

How can we take a President at his word when we do not know what his word means? This is a President who denied repeatedly that suspects in U.S. custody were tortured, then suddenly admits, nine months after The New Yorker published it, that in fact the CIA has maintained secret prisons in countries where torture is commonplace, and certain “assets” were transported secretly to those countries—including one gentleman from Canada, who has since been cleared of all charges by a Canadian government investigation, who was taken overseas and tortured, held for more than a year even though he did nothing wrong and had no information to give because he is not a terrorist—what word is it that we are taking from this President? And what does it mean?

The idea that words have many meanings is no surprise. In English, especially, we use words in ways that strike others as strange. Houses burn up and houses burn down, take your choice; they mean the same thing. But usages like that don’t confuse us, really, because we’ve come to a common agreement on their meaning.

I would have thought, until last week, that we all had a pretty common understanding of a common word like “winning.” I think the kids on my soccer team are in general agreement about it. But now, thanks to the leadership of our President, who follows not the American Heritage, or Merriam Webster, or Oxford English usage manuals, but the Humpty Dumpty Manual of English Words And Their Usage, we have to adjust our definitions.

Winning now means failing to achieve one’s goal, and at the same time giving advantage to and increasing the strength of one’s opponent.

If you haven’t already, say good-bye to common sense. Stop listening to the news—you don’t know what the words mean, anyway. Pay no attention to the soldiers returning who, in increasing numbers, are expressing their frustration at U.S. policy and behavior in Iraq. Ignore the growing instability and violence in the Middle East. If you see photos of  car bombs and headlines of increasing sectarian violence as chaos reigns in Baghdad, don’t believe it. Listen to the President. We are winning. Stay the course.

Go ahead and burn your dictionary. Save the one on your computer for spell check—it doesn’t have those pesky definitions. We’re still spelling words the same way, just changing the meanings. We are winning. Stay the course.

When people like Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Ahmadinejad express concerns about U.S. global intentions at the UN, pay no mind. Dismiss them, as journalists and pundits did, as gas-bags, blowhards, tin-horns. Call them dictators (as McCain did Chavez, who was democratically elected, just like McCain was). Give their words no meaning. Listen, instead, to your President. We are winning. Stay the course.

If the U.S.  is ever going to reclaim credibility for our words or our actions on the world stage, we will have to change our leadership. Humpty Dumpty leadership will get us nowhere. If we continue to use it, we will continue to break things that can’t be put back together again, like Iraq.