Sunday, June 26, 2005
WITH US, AGAINST US Billmon has written a great post documenting the slow evolution of the Bush administration's rhetorical stance toward Iraqi insurgents. The new party line, if you haven't heard, is that negotiating with these people is no big deal:
It's definitely going to be an Orwellian challenge. Even if Rummy and the gang drop the "terrorist" and "assassin" lingo and go back to "former regime elements," or "Baathist diehards," they still will have to explain the morality of negotiating with butchers who gas their own people and then bury them in mass graves (that is, when they aren't relaxing in their rape rooms.) Such is the problem with wartime atrocity propaganda: In a rapidly shifting situation, it may have too long a shelf life.
