U.S. President Barack Obama (from 2nd L-R) smiles as he names U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey his pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Navy Admiral Sandy Winnefeld to be the new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and General Ray Odierno to be the new Chief of Staff of the Army in an announcement in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, May 30, 2011. Also pictured is Defense Secretary Robert Gates (L). REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) (Â© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)

Our new language of perpetual war

From "victory" to "withdrawal," we look at nine words that have been redefined to justify our military actions

Tom Engelhardt
June 24, 2011 1:01AM (UTC)

Now that Washington has at least six wars cooking (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, and more generally, the global war on terror), Americans find themselves in a new world of war. If, however, you haven't joined the all-volunteer military, any of our 17 intelligence outfits, the Pentagon, the weapons companies and hire-a-gun corporations associated with it, or some other part of the National Security Complex, America's distant wars go on largely without you (at least until the bills come due).

War has a way of turning almost anything upside down, including language. But with lost jobs, foreclosed homes, crumbling infrastructure, and weird weather, who even notices? This undoubtedly means that you're using a set of antediluvian war words or definitions from your father's day. It's time to catch up.


So here's the latest word in war words: what's in, what's out, what's inside out. What follows are nine common terms associated with our present wars that probably don't mean what you think they mean. Since you live in a twenty-first-century war state, you might consider making them your own.

Victory: Like defeat, it's a "loaded" word and rather than define it, Americans should simply avoid it.

In his last press conference before retirement, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked whether the U.S. was "winning in Afghanistan." He replied, "I have learned a few things in four and a half years, and one of them is to try and stay away from loaded words like 'winning' and 'losing.' What I will say is that I believe we are being successful in implementing the president's strategy, and I believe that our military operations are being successful in denying the Taliban control of populated areas, degrading their capabilities, and improving the capabilities of the Afghan national security forces."


In 2011, despite the complaints of a few leftover neocons dreaming of past glory, you can search Washington high and low for "victory." You won't find it. It's the verbal equivalent of a Yeti. Being "successful in implementing the president's strategy," what more could you ask? Keeping the enemy on his "back foot": hey, at $10 billion a month, if that isn't "success," tell me what is?

Admittedly, the assassination of Osama bin Laden was treated as if it were VJ Day ending World War II, but actually win a war? Don't make Secretary of Defense Gates laugh!


Maybe, if everything comes up roses, in some year soon we'll be celebrating DE (Degrade the Enemy) Day.


"I actually consider al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with Al-Awlaki as a leader within that organization probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland." So said Michael Leiter, presidential adviser and the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, last February, months before Osama bin Laden was killed (and Leiter himself resigned). Since bin Laden's death, Leiter's assessment has been heartily seconded in word and deed in Washington. For example, New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti recently wrote: "Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen is believed by the C.I.A. to pose the greatest immediate threat to the United States, more so than even Qaeda's senior leadership believed to be hiding in Pakistan."

Now, here's the odd thing. Once upon a time, statements like these might have been tantamount to announcements of victory: That's all they've got left?





Covert War: It used to mean secret war, a war "in the shadows" and so beyond the public's gaze. Now, it means a conflict in the full glare of publicity that everybody knows about, but no one can do anything about. Think: in the news, but off the books.


Go figure: today, our "covert" wars are front-page news. The top-secret operation to assassinate Osama bin Laden garnered an unprecedented 69 percent of the U.S. media "newshole" the week after it happened, and 90 percent of cable TV coverage. And America's most secretive covert warriors, elite SEAL Team 6, caused "SEAL-mania" to break out nationwide.




Permanent bases: In the American way of war, military bases built on foreign soil are the equivalent of heroin. The Pentagon can't help building them and can't live without them, but "permanent bases" don't exist, not for Americans. Never.

That's simple enough, but let me be absolutely clear anyway: Americans may have at least 865 bases around the world (not including those in war zones), but we have no desire to occupy other countries. And wherever we garrison (and where aren't we garrisoning?), we don't want to stay, not permanently anyway.




Fortunately, we plan to turn those many bases we built to the tune of billions of dollars, including the gigantic establishments at Bagram and Kandahar, over to the Afghans and just hang around, possibly "for decades," as -- and the word couldn't be more delicate or thoughtful -- "tenants."

And by the way, accompanying the recent reports that the CIA is preparing to lend the U.S. military a major covert hand, drone-style, in its Yemen campaign, was news that the Agency is building a base of its own on a rushed schedule in an unnamed Persian Gulf country. Just one base. But don't expect that to be the end of it. After all, that's like eating one potato chip.

Withdrawal: We're going, we're going... Just not quite yet and stop pushing!

If our bases are shots of heroin, then for the U.S. military leaving anyplace represents a form of "withdrawal," which means the shakes. Like drugs, it's just so darn easy to go in that Washington keeps doing it again and again. Getting out's the bear. Who can blame them, if they don't want to leave?


In Iraq, for instance, Washington has been in the grips of withdrawal fever since 2008 when the Bush administration agreed that all U.S. troops would leave by the end of this year. You can still hear those combat boots dragging in the sand. At this point, top administration and military officials are almost begging the Iraqis to let us remain on a few of our monster bases, like the ill-named Camp Victory or Balad Air Base, which in its heyday had air traffic that reputedly rivaled Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. But here's the thing: even if the U.S. military officially departs, lock, stock, and (gun) barrel, Washington's still not really planning on leaving.


In sum, "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh" is not a song that Washington likes to sing.




Drones are the covert weaponry of choice in our covert wars, which means, of course, that the military just can't wait to usher chosen reporters into its secret labs and experimental testing grounds to reveal dazzling visions of future destruction.

To make sense of drones, we probably have to stop thinking about "war" and start envisaging other models -- for example, that of the executioner who carries out a death sentence on another human being at no danger to himself. If a pilotless drone is actually an executioner's weapon, a modern airborne version of the guillotine, the hangman's noose, or the electric chair, the death sentence it carries with it is not decreed by a judge and certainly not by a jury of peers.










National Sovereignty: 1. Something Americans cherish and wouldn't let any other country violate; 2. Something foreigners irrationally cling to, a sign of unreliability or mental instability.


Those elsewhere, with a misplaced reverence for their own safety or security, or an overblown sense of pride and self-worth, who put themselves in harm's way -- watch out. After all, in a phrase: Sovereignty 'R' Us.

Note: As we still live on a one-way imperial planet, don't try reversing any of the above, not even as a thought experiment. Don't imagine Iranian drones hunting terrorists over Southern California or Pakistani special operations forces launching night raids on small midwestern towns. Not if you know what's good for you.




Tom Engelhardt


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