doublespeak

//// Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. –wikipedia ////

Kissinger & Mao : the need to fire empty cannons

Often when a spokesperson for the United States Foreign Affairs establishment describes the methods or motives of our supposed enemies, the phrasing, terminology and lexicon they use can so aptly be re-employed to describe our own actions, agenda and position vis-a-vis the world.

Feb.’07 : Defense Secretary Robert Gates, at a European security conference in Munich, prudently side-stepped some harsh comments Vladimir Putin made about the U.S. Although Gates admitted that Putin’s speach “almost filled (him) with nostalgia for a less-complex time”, his reply was an unsentimental, masterstroke of doublespeak:

Russia is a partner in endeavors. But we wonder, too, about some Russian policies that seem to work against international stability, such as its arms transfers and its temptation to use energy resources for political coercian.

Gates, I presume, doesn’t feel that international stability is jeopardized when the U.S. engages in arms transfers with Israel or some upper-level appointees in the State Department arrange to move arms to militias in Central and South America. Come to think of it, what might Gates have had on his mind as he departed Germany later that day for an “unnanounced trip” to Pakistan?

Isn’t it also disingenious to cite Russia’s use of energy resources as a means of political co-ercian while we broker a deal with North Korea to exchange $400 million in fuel oil for halting it’s nuclear projects? Don’t get me wrong, the tactic may be the most poweful tool in the non-proliferation box (see Libya and, coming soon, Iran) other than the most obivous and far-reaching tool: working toward disarmament at home.

Maybe the not-so-subtle message here is:

Look here, we won the goddamn Cold War, didn’t we? We’ll set the goddamn rules of engagement. As such, what we do as a matter of course to influence International Affairs in Proctection of Our Own Self-Interest–Insert Grand Flourish Here–will be off limits to the rest of y’all, with the exception being, of course, when your interests and ours happen to coincide. Let this notice stand until further notice!

We don’t negotiate with evil—we defeat it. –Dick Cheney

The way to do well is to do well. –Donald Rumsfeld

I don’t do carrots. –John Bolton

This is a moment of real opportunity. –Paul Wolfowitz