As a survivor of the feminist wars, and a woman old enough to remember clearly the dismissive, and now discredited language that men use to use when they wanted to avoid explaining just how deep a hole they had dug, I have been struck by the comments of Administration spokesmen, and their various sycophants, since the ISG report was made public.
The spin word they are promoting across the broadcast world, the new word of the day, the word being promoted to avoid any rational discussion of their thinking on Iraq, seems to have devolved to "complex".
The following statements jump out at me as charming examples of the new Iraq War, Talkie Talk.
In Monday's White House Presser, Tony Snowe was asked what kinds of considerations the Administration is using to decide the content of Bush's upcoming speech on the future of Iraq.
Tony pulled the old DWYPLH line, saying, "is not like solving a crossword puzzle" it is, instead a "highly complex situation". How very kind! He protected me from any information that might confuse and disturb me, didn't he? How very Manly of him!
By late afternoon on Tuesday, the response offered by a Republican pundit on the Situation Room, to questions about the demand to just get out Iraq, had become predictable. People who make those demands do not take into account the "complexity of the situation", he said.
Colin Powell's statement that he strongly disapproved of any "surge" in forces was said to reflect his "lack of understand of the current complexity of the situation". You can read snippets of the presser and Snow's take on Powell's comments Here.
I was beginning to get the idea that I just must be incapable of understanding the "complexity" of foreign policy in the middle east. Just too stupid to understand what the hell is going on. But it was not just me, and that was just Tuesday.
During the past 2 weeks Jack Murtha, Jack Reed, and Chuck Hagel's proposals for Iraq have all been publically dismissed because they do not understand the "complexity" of the problems in Iraq, and their demand to begin phased troop withdrawls, do not "reflect the complexity on the ground."
Telling people not to worry about a situations you describe as "too complex" for their understanding, when you created that situation, and you are being told by everyone that it is going very badly, is a very interesting power/control technique. It avoids any public examination of both the past, and any future, decisions that you will make.
Here is how this is designed to work:
Claims of complexity will provide protection against a careful examination of the mistakes of the past. They also absolve the target of the "Pretty Head" comment from any responsibility for insisting on understanding and investigating the mess that they suspect exists.
After all, the person with titular responsibility has just claimed that only they can really understand the "complexity". They demand that they be left to handle the mess without interference from those who do not "understand the complexity". And, it protects the Screw-up in Chief from stating clearly where we are, and how we got there. Claims of excessive complexity create a convenient blanket to toss over the heads of the uninformed to hide the past sins of the Screw-up.
Secondly, it creates two kinds of future cover for the Screw-up.
First, it implies that they are confronting a situation so complex that if the results of their attempt to repair the mess go awry it can not be blamed on them. After all, when the fan is hit with the fecal matter, how could anyone have been expected to accomplish the impossibly complex task they have defined? It protects the folks in charge from having to defend or explain any actions they may be required to take in the future as a result of their past failure.
It also protects them from any serious questions as to whether they may be the proper person to address the mess they have created.
So...the Decider, and the White House, don't want you to worry your pretty little head over Iraq.
The "adults" will handle it. After all, they know all the complex details and how to solve the problems they have created. Anyone who does not have access to their set of facts just doesn't understand how very complex it all is. If you don't agree with their solution, you just don't understand the complexity...
Watch for it! "Hard Work" has been upgraded. And, you are just too stupid to appreciate the complexity of the shell game.
Maybe it's time we demand that the press challenge the complexity meme, and force the White House, Pentagon, and Department of State to find Small Words. Words that can cut through the complexity and inform the American people exactly what they plan to do. And, why.
This manly, psuedo-intellectual posturing has gone on long enough. Indeed, it fell out of fashion 40 years ago.