Completely Unnecessary

Not to mention, a year and a half or, say, three.

On December 18th, the president attempted to assuage the American people, saying, “My fellow citizens, not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq.”

Last night, having gauged that no one was buying that line anymore, he tried for mutual indignation. “The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people; and it is unacceptable to me.”

I’d like to refer to the first clause in that sentence as “The ‘Duh’ Heard Around the World.” And by the way, I gave the president the benefit of the doubt on that semi-colon.

I will say that watching the speech on closed-captioning with a drink in my hand made it easier to watch.

Think Progress has a video up from MSNBC (Joe Scarborough of all people) of clips from various Bush addresses. No CC though, so you have to watch it with the sound on. Bummer.

Vaguely Related

• The Troops Use Nicknames, Too
• 4000 Dead Americans in Iraq

The Stranger just posted of a guy who got “knocked on [his] ass” refer to all the dead Iraqis as “hodgies.”

I looked this term up, not knowing what it was. Turns out it’s a generalized reference to combatants against US soldiers in Iraq. The term is an Americanization of the word “hajjis,” people who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Googling “hodgies” brings up this lovely comment on a myspace page…

what the fuck is up!?!! so what are you up to now??? i am an infantry soldier in the army now, b/c i am that hardcore! haha. who would have ever guessed i’d do something that required that i kill lots of people…those mother fuckin’ hodgies threw a party the day we rolled out of that sandbox! but as much as i fucking hate iraq, i cant wait to go back and shoot some more! (deployment date: august 2007) …

Proud moments. Since I’m not sure if I’m stealing his speech by posting it, here is his myspace page.

Interestingly, the term ‘hodgies’ is also occasionally used to describe Iraqis, in general. I find it interesting that a term to describe people making a peaceful pilgrimage is bastardized into a term for enemy combatants, and is then applied to the population as a whole.

Sheds a bit of light on the way our troops view the people they’re liberating, as well as the insecurity of not knowing who your enemy is, so everyone becomes your enemy.

Since the term is related to Islamic pilgrimage, that enemy appears to be Islam itself.

Vaguely Related

• What a Difference… Less than a Month Makes
• Westboro Fined $11 Million