Purge this Surge
Word of the week: “Surge.” As in, George W. Bush’s call for another 20,000 troops while he plunges us further into a lost cause in Iraq. Until the last couple of weeks, I actually liked the word “surge.” Nice, active verb. Colorful. But now that “surge” has become the latest buzzword for the Bush Administration and other assorted warmongers, the word has lost some meaning for me.
I always think of it this way: Feelings and emotions surge. A “surge” of passion. A “surge” of embarrassment . Perhaps we “surge” into something that takes great concentration and dedication. Like “surging” into our latest project at work. I detest the word linking with yet another misguided thrust into a region that is all but lost to civil war.
Besides, wasn’t it a “surge” of the American electorate that told Bush last November they oppose his handling of the war, oppose further involvement of American forces, and decided the Democrats ought to have their shot at a solution?
I watched Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. He’s awfully senatorial, he starts sounding a little pugnacious and he seldom captivates me on the issue at hand. But his sentiments on Iraq, have been echoed by other bright minds and are right on.
A political solution, Biden says, should come first. Then we can worry about a physical solution. It makes sense. It’s called planning ahead.
Seems to me that any decent “surge” ought to have a good blueprint behind it before it ever takes place.
And I hope that someday the power of that terrific word gets restored to its rightful place.
January 11th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I was one of so many who registered my disapproval and anger that you had “resigned” from the Tribune. I think I can partly understand your discouragement with the newspaper business after watching Utah Now, but I wanted to hear more from you at that time and less from John Hughes.
Good news, though. I was looking over your shoulder and saw “Mullentown.” It took me a while to figure out how gain access to speak my piece, because I am not very computer literate, but now I am in! I wrote that fan letter to you about Dr. Ruth a while back.
On the surge, I wanted to add that the most apt comparison seems to me to be electrical. That is why we have surge bars in our home to keep from getting overloaded. The surge bar in the Federal government ought to be Congress, as well as the Supreme Court. Neither can be effective in Iraq, apparently, so we are now overloading that country with troops when pulling the plug would be more effective. We needed Clark’s idea of 400,000 troops 4 years ago, not now. Maybe then, not at all. War is not a solution to political problems. Assasination would have been okay for Saddam; the CIA has certainly made much worse mistakes.
Biden has plans, so why doesn’t the media ever quote him? Not a whole lot of people are going to watch that particular Democrat on Meet the Press. He has had forceful ideas which are political solutions for years!