andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> To put the point another way, it is preposterous to
> say, having smashed their country to smithereens, that
> we are now staying against the will of the Iraqis to
> make sure that things doin't get worse. Who appointed
> us the arbiter of that issue? Our being there is by
> itself a major Bad Thing.
If I understand Michael's follow-up post, he was posing the question merely as a word game, not a serious political question. If so, people have the right to play the games they choose and I have no objections.
But if we take his first post seriously, then I think it stands as an example of the way in which clear language can be far more obscurantist than anything business, bureaucrats, or pomos have ever produced. To raise such a question as though it were a matter of any doubt . . . I lack words strong enough to complete the sentence.
Carrol