LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.Best Political Blog Winner, 2007 Webby Awards, People's Voice and Jury.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise - Gore Vidal signed first editions - Signed Mr. Fish prints
 
August 29, 2008
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Reports
 * NEW! * The End of an Institution
 * NEW! * A Moment in History

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture

Digs
Inside the Data Mine

Truthdig Bazaar
The Terror Dream

The Terror Dream

By Susan Faludi
$17.16

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Webb: Just What Is a Permanent Base?

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Apr 11, 2008
James Webb Hearing
AP photo / Susan Walsh

While the Bush administration has told Congress it will not seek permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, Sen. James Webb still wonders what the word permanent really means. In an exchange at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, Webb received a very psychedelic response from two administration officials.

The exchange was among Webb, State Department Iraq coordinator David Satterfield and Assistant Defense Secretary Mary Beth Long.


The Washington Post:

Webb: What is a permanent base?

Satterfield: Senator, the administration has made quite clear that we are not seeking permanent bases in Iraq. ...

[ ... ]

Webb: We’ve had bases in Korea since 1953, anyway, and I would be hard-pressed to say they’re permanent. How long is permanent? We have bases in Japan under a security agreement, but we are relocating a lot of those to Guam, so I wouldn’t say that they are permanent. So to say that these won’t be permanent bases really doesn’t go to the question of what they will be. It goes to the question of what they won’t be. And what we’re saying they won’t be is a dead word.

Long: Senator, you’re exactly right. I think most lawyers ... would say that the word “permanent” probably refers more to the state of mind contemplated by the use of the term.

Read more

TAGS:


Email Newsletter

Get truth delivered to your inbox every week.

Previous item: Petraeus: ‘There Are Risks Beyond Iraq’

Next item: G-7, IMF and World Bank Leaders to Meet

Jump to Comments

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Sean Maurice Hunt, April 12 at 10:47 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Webb is a truth teller and a real Patriot much like Scott Ritter...Senator Webb’s thoughts and actions are a template for all warrior spirit minded change agents.

Report this

By Leefeller, April 12 at 6:12 am #

By “Pisses”?

Wonder if it has something to do with the gas water and electric company answer machines giving us 10 different language choices, maybe they should add one for political language?

Report this

By cyrena, April 12 at 2:58 am #

I bet I hate it more than you do. Pisses me off a whole bunch too.

But, thanks to GrammaConcept, we know the authors of this piece at least used the correct words to describe what’s been coming out of these criminal mouths for far too many years now…

“a psychedelic experience hallucinatory, trippy, dream-like, mind-bending, mind-altering, mind-expanding, mind-blowing, bizarre, surreal.”

Yup..that’s a start.

Report this

By DarthMiffy, April 12 at 2:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

FYI: Language has always been used as a weapon. Any research into past history will show this. Don’t be sidetracked by the language, please, but rather by the minds that appropriate the language...and their purposes. Always instructive.

Report this

By republicanSScareme, April 12 at 1:13 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I was surprised to read that the United States has 737 military bases overseas. It sounds to me like an “American Empire” already exists.

At least Jim Webb is asking the right questions. Yes, the response was psychedelic...the more I thought about it, the dizzier I got. But better to have a psychedelic experience than ask straight questions and get comical answers that just leave everyone with stupid looks on their faces. And if the American public goes “Huh?”, no one has to look embarrassed or confused.

Question for inquiry: How congressional hearings drove sit-coms off television.

Report this

By Gmonst, April 11 at 1:10 pm #

I agree.  The word game has been a major curse of this political age.  The words become tools to use and manipulate.  Common meanings are turned on their head, and red herring arguments over the meaning of words ensue.  The common denominator becomes that no one has to stand by their word because the meaning of the word can be changed at a later date as the situation merits.  Sadly, this practice seems to come from all quarters.  I would love to say it was just neo-conservative republicans, its not, they are the undisputed champions of this kind of word play, but all parties get into it.  The first time I remember being acutely aware of this was Bill Clinton trying to argue that “sexual relations” somehow excluded blowjobs.

Its things like this that give me the nausea and dizziness of being too-long on a roller-coaster.  One slowly realizes that the very fabric of law and society (words)is being torn apart by this endless word play that essentially makes discourse meaningless.

Report this

By atticus, April 11 at 12:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Just a note, Blackspeare: pax romana established peace in the empire; POX Americana spews death and disgrace everywhere in Bush’s would-be empire.

Report this

By Thomas Billis, April 11 at 11:27 am #

Let me say this slowly.The executive cannot appropiate funds.Get off your rhetorical ass and cut the funding.One more time.CUT THE FUNDING.

Report this

By Blackspeare, April 11 at 11:16 am #

Oh, c’mon----you can’t built an empire without bases around the world----why even the Romans knew that and they had a Pax Romana for 100 years.  The USA has hardly started and besides its their turn now!!!!

Report this

By TDoff, April 11 at 10:39 am #

C’mon, Jim Webb, a ‘permanent base’ is the level at which republican politicians operate, it represents the nadir of human morality, below which no sentient being can sink. It is the negative standard established by the Bush Cabal, giving the nation the certainty that any and all future administrations will rise and operate above what we have all suffered these past seven+ years.

It is the depth we can look back on, come January 2009, with fear and loathing, and collectively swear,
‘Nevermore, Nevermore’.

Report this

By GrammaConcept, April 11 at 10:20 am #

in the introduction here describing the answers received from ‘officials’:.....

psychedelic
adjective
1 a psychedelic experience hallucinatory, trippy, dream-like, mind-bending, mind-altering, mind-expanding, mind-blowing, bizarre, surreal.

Yup.

Report this

By Aegrus, April 11 at 9:26 am #

Why do our politicians insist on defining and re-defining every word in the English language to further their own political agendas? I hate this practice so much.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox

Privacy Policy

 
Click here to advertise with Truthdig
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.