'Just a Comma' Becomes Part of Iraq Debate

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401707.html

'Just a Comma' Becomes Part of Iraq Debate
Opponents See Bush's Words on War as Insensitive or as Code for Religious Right

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 4 -- When the president speaks, every word can be subject to scrutiny. Even the punctuation marks.

As he heads out on the campaign trail, haunted by an unpopular war, President Bush has begun reassuring audiences that this traumatic period in Iraq will be seen as "just a comma" in the history books. By that, aides say, he means to reinforce his message of resolve in the long struggle for Iraqi democracy.

But opponents of the war have seized on the formulation, seeing it as evidence that Bush is indifferent to suffering. To them, it sounds as if the president is dismissing more than 2,700 U.S. troop deaths as "just a comma." And a lively Internet debate has broken out about the origins of the phrase, with some speculating that Bush means it as a coded message to religious supporters, evoking the aphorism "Never put a period where God has put a comma."

...

Aides said it is ridiculous to believe Bush is sending subliminal messages. "People have too much time on their hands," said Bush counselor Dan Bartlett. "I can assure you, you don't need a secret decoder ring to decipher what he's saying."

All Bush means, he said, is the struggle to build Iraqi democracy will take years. "He's making a historical analysis -- that these brief periods seem long and protracted now, but when you look back at them in history, they won't seem that way. He's definitely not discounting the loss of life or the sacrifice people are making."

[beyurslf]

1. Of course he doesn't discount their sacrifice.Why, he goes to each funeral

of a fallen soldier......

Or, then again, maybe not so much.

[Kagemusha]

2. Uh, saying it'll be a historical footnote is downplaying the sacrifices.

Perhaps "discounting" has a straw-man-like, broader meaning than the word I use here, "downplaying," but nonetheless, Bush's not using an euphemism for a historical footnote to play up the importance of the casualties. That would simply be absurd.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Right, Bartlett

Your President lies so he can tear a country apart leading to tens of thousands of deaths and endless war, but we're the ones who need to get real...Go fuck yourself.

[jarab]

4. And this is "just a comma", too, I suppose -

... a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

...O...

[gratuitous]

5. Hey, the Greeks fought some epic wars, too

And who remembers them, or the names of the individuals slaughtered before their time? Shoot, in 2,500 years, maybe the stain of the name "Bush" will at last be washed away from the pages of history.

[kurth]

6. Yep, it's just a comma for a moron in a coma

"He's making a historical analysis".

WHAT? BUSH making a historical analysis?

[Systematic Chaos]

7. But he READS! Over a whopping HUNDRED PAGES a day!

And some real deep stuff too! Sartre or whatever the hell it was....

:eyes:

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. George ain't educated enough to come up with that on his own -

.
.
.

I suspect his rhetoric comes from the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld

Certainly not his own cranium!!