Surge, when used in reference to the SurgeTM, has very little correspondence to the general definition of the word, surge. When I was listening to the Senate hearings today—and probably the House hearings yesterday, though I didn’t notice it as much in the clips I heard—, every once in a while a Senator would refer to the SurgeTM in such a way that it would create maximal cognitive dissonance between the usage and the definition, as in the phrase, “end the SurgeTM next year.”
My favorite bit of the House hearings (I didn’t get to listen to much of the Senate due to karate class and poor radio reception) was when our charming ambassador compared the Iraq war to the American Revolution and the Iraqi civil war to the American civil rights movement.
by Laura—Sep 12, 07:12 PM
I’m kinda glad I missed that one…
by greg—Sep 12, 09:56 PM
A better example of the dissonance is in what GWB will say tonight: withdrawal of 30K troops (yadda yadda) to “pre-SurgeTM levels.”
by greg—Sep 13, 07:05 AM
Ugh. I understand Obama’s desire to appropriate the TM to his own ends, but a surge of diplomacy won’t do, not at all.
by greg—Sep 13, 07:15 AM