What a two-edged sword is language. It can express the finest of details in the most exquisite of manners. Or it can twist the truth into contortions of ugliness and mendacity.
The whole business with 'The Surge' falls into the latter category. I truly thought, at the outset of this blatant attempt to hide a dastardly deed behind a reworked word, that the deceit would be exposed.
Silly me.
From its inception in January 2007 till now, we have been 'surged' so thoroughly, that it would seem everyone has forgotten that what really happened a year and a half ago was an obscene ESCALATION of troops. Remember that word when it happened in Vietnam?
What we didn't have in the days of troop escalation in Vietnam, though, was a media so willing to sacrifice the integrity of the Fourth Estate in sycophantical deference to the Executive Branch. They've been so successful at it, that one can tune in to any radio frequency or TV news spot and hear 90% of the speakers enthusing over the excellent outcomes of The Surge, while 10% still hang back in their praise of The Surge.
But never will you hear the word 'escalation' uttered. It's been a true Newspeak success.
George Orwell would have been impressed.
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