Beware, language twisters at work

The Bushies have distorted and twisted the meaning of so many of the words of our fine English language that it might seem irrational of me to take note of one particularly irritating distortion I saw–and not for the first time!–in today’s WaPo.
It’s in a piece by Thomas Ricks on a hot tip that his idol, General Petraeus, will shortly be named to head back to Iraq to oversee the organization of all the “Iraqified” security forces there after this strange self-immolatory event the Coalition is planning for June 30.
Self-immolatory? Well, not quite… Ricks quotes Deputy Secretary of “Defense” Paul Wolfowitz as saying:

    There’s not going to be any difference in our military posture on July 1st from what it is on June 30th, except that we will be there then at the invitation of a sovereign Iraqi government, which I am quite sure will want us to stay there until…

Excuse me? What is the meaning of the word “sovereign” in that sentence? I can understand what its function is, there and in a hundred similar sentences. But in the context of this sentence it is particularly clear that this function depends totally on a 180-degree twisting of the real, commonly understood meaning of the word.

11 thoughts on “Beware, language twisters at work”

  1. The CPA tried to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement with the IGC for the express purpose of providing a basis for a continued US miliary presence after June 30th. About a month ago, the negotiations collapsed completely because no IGC member was willing to lend his name to such an agreement.
    Wolfie is lying through his evil-smelling teeth.

  2. his teeth can smell? must be evil. 🙂
    (evil teeth, that is) hehe. Sorry for the clutter…just bored at work.

  3. Great page Helena. I love Africa and spent 6 years in Tanzania up until 2000 and it should be discussed.
    I’d love you to post some messages on the BBC 5Live MB that I have listed as my homepage.

  4. Hi all. Yes, you’re quite right, Yankee. I know you did some good coverage on that on yr blog. I did some too– hit ‘SOFA’ in my search box.

  5. Recently deceased blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan “comes to” after
    his death. He sees Jimi Hendrix sitting next to him, tuning his guitar.
    “Holy cow,” he thinks to himself, “this guy is my idol.” Over at the
    microphone, about to sing, are Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, and the
    bassist is the late Barry Oakley of the Allman Brothers. So Stevie
    Ray’s thinking, “Oh, wow! I’ve died and gone to rock and roll heaven.”
    Just then, Karen Carpenter walks in, sits down at the drums, and says:
    “‘Close to You’. Hit it, boys!”
    — Told by Penn Jillette, of magic/comedy duo Penn and Teller
    lipitor

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