Calling It Something Else

Elisabeth Bumiller's Pentagon Memo takes note of the "semantic dance: What is the definition of a combat soldier?"

Even though the agreement with the Iraqi government calls for all American combat troops to be out of the cities by the end of June, military planners are now quietly acknowledging that many will stay behind as renamed "trainers" and "advisers" in what are effectively combat roles. In other words, they will still be engaged in combat, just called something else.

Which leaves ongoing ...

... and of course thousands of American soldiers dead, and tens of thousands wounded, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead and wounded, and millions displaced.

But hey, as the lame duck Bullshitter-in-Chief with the shit-eating grin on his face has been saying, "So what?"

On that note, I take my cue from The Cutting Floor, Carl Weissner's collective novel. As he says, "... aw give it to Montesquieu."