First there was the "mission accomplished" banner.
Then, last year, there was a "plan for victory" and, just this past October, the presidential assertion, "Absolutely, we're winning."
Now that US President George W. Bush is seeking "a new way forward" in Iraq, he is embracing a new verbal construction to describe progress there: "We're not winning. We're not losing."
The latest shift in the official language begs the question: Well, which is it? A tie? A draw? Something else?
Bush essentially endorsed the not-winning-not-losing assessment in an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday by way of attributing it to General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When asked if the US was winning in Iraq, Bush said, "An interesting construct that General Pace uses is `We're not winning; we're not losing.'"
To those who closely follow the president's rhetoric on the war, the answer was something of a dodge.
"This is pretty weak, but they have pretty weak material to work with at this point," said Christopher Gelpi, a political scientist at Duke University whose research on public opinion and the war has been studied by the administration.
"He's in a difficult rhetorical situation because he stuck so long with the `we're making progress' argument, yet clearly he does finally understand this is his last chance to make a major policy correction in Iraq," he said
At his news conference on Wednesday Bush was emphatic that victory in Iraq was achievable and that winning was what he had in mind even when he referred to Pace's remarks.
Yet, by the generally accepted David-versus-Goliath rules of counterinsurgencies, the insurgents are winning so long as the counterinsurgents are not.
"The basic theory of counterinsurgency warfare is that the defenders must demonstrate momentum toward victory or success," said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a military policy organization in Virginia. "If you can't prove you are making progress then by definition you are losing."
White House officials say that in this war there are insurgents attacking other insurgents as well as counterinsurgents; there are terrorists, armed gangsters and an occupying force -- the US-led coalition -- all fighting each other, too, and so the usual rules and definitions do not apply.
In short: a dizzying mix of forces in Iraq has resulted in a dizzying mix of definitions of winning and losing as the administration has sought to recalibrate expectations for a public that was initially promised a swift victory and now just seems to want to hear it straight.
"When they say, `We're not winning; we're not losing,' that's just being realistic," said William Safire, whose column, "On Language," appears in the New York Times Magazine.
"And `realistic' is a word that's being kicked around now," he said.
This week began with a debate over what former secretary of state Colin Powell meant when he said on Face the Nation on Sunday, partly quoting the Iraq Study Group report.
"So if it's grave and deteriorating and we're not winning, we are losing," Powell said.
"Look, what Colin Powell is saying, `We're not winning, so therefore we must be losing,'" White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese