from an article called The Fog of War Talk By John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, AlterNet :
At the very beginning of the "war on terrorism," a reporter asked Donald Rumsfeld, "Sir, what constitutes a victory in this new environment? I mean, Cap Weinberger in 1987 laid down some pretty clear rules for engaging U.S. forces. One was, clear goals that are militarily achievable, that you can explain that there's an endgame. What's some of your early thinking here in terms of what constitutes victory?"
"That's a good question, as to what constitutes victory," Rumsfeld replied. "Now, what is victory? I say that victory is persuading the American people and the rest of the world that this is not a quick matter that's going to be over in a month or a year or even five years. It is something that we need to do so that we can continue to live in a world with powerful weapons and with people who are willing to use those powerful weapons. And we can do that as a country. And that would be a victory, in my view."
that, my friends is brilliant.
& very,very frightening.
---
in other news, I was getting ready for work & called my sister (who works at the same place) to ask her about feeding my cats while I'm out of town & she mentioned that she's noticed on the roster that I was down for annual leave tonight.
I'd forgotten about it, but a quick call to the prison verifyed that yes, indeed, I was slated for a night off.
which is kinda like going to a class which yer not really prepared for & seeing a movie projector set up (I went to school years & years ago, in an underfunded district, where we still used movie projectors)
or seeing that the normal teacher was sick & that you had a substitute instead.
the really cool one.
who didn't wear a bra.
if I'd've known this earlier I'd be already gone, but still, a night off is a night off, eh?
At the very beginning of the "war on terrorism," a reporter asked Donald Rumsfeld, "Sir, what constitutes a victory in this new environment? I mean, Cap Weinberger in 1987 laid down some pretty clear rules for engaging U.S. forces. One was, clear goals that are militarily achievable, that you can explain that there's an endgame. What's some of your early thinking here in terms of what constitutes victory?"
"That's a good question, as to what constitutes victory," Rumsfeld replied. "Now, what is victory? I say that victory is persuading the American people and the rest of the world that this is not a quick matter that's going to be over in a month or a year or even five years. It is something that we need to do so that we can continue to live in a world with powerful weapons and with people who are willing to use those powerful weapons. And we can do that as a country. And that would be a victory, in my view."
that, my friends is brilliant.
& very,very frightening.
---
in other news, I was getting ready for work & called my sister (who works at the same place) to ask her about feeding my cats while I'm out of town & she mentioned that she's noticed on the roster that I was down for annual leave tonight.
I'd forgotten about it, but a quick call to the prison verifyed that yes, indeed, I was slated for a night off.
which is kinda like going to a class which yer not really prepared for & seeing a movie projector set up (I went to school years & years ago, in an underfunded district, where we still used movie projectors)
or seeing that the normal teacher was sick & that you had a substitute instead.
the really cool one.
who didn't wear a bra.
if I'd've known this earlier I'd be already gone, but still, a night off is a night off, eh?
There's a quote from William Gibson's blog, I thought you would be pleased with, as I was when discovering it:
"I think that the one piece of newspeak that's struck me as most barbarous, in Orwell's sense, in my lifetime, has been "politically correct".
I can actually remember the very first time I heard it. In Seattle, as it happened. I assumed that the person who'd used it was (1) using it entirely ironically, and (2) having as I thought coined it just then, was far cleverer, and funnier, than I'd previously given him credit for. My horror, subsequently, at discovering that his usage was entirely irony-free, was...Orwellian.
I suppose in the meantime that those people capable of using it without irony have pretty much ceased to use it (though not, I'd guess, to think it).
It bothered me more, even, than that more actively barbarous late 20th-century expression, "ethnic cleansing", probably because I've never met anyone who would admit to being in favor of...actually I don't like to use this phrase, because it seems so inherently, er, politically incorrect".
I have to admit that Rumsfeld succeeds in frightening me everytime he opens his mouth, even by just saying: "Nice weather, huh?" ...