Out of the mouths of babes

Someone should resurrect the famous New Yorker cartoon of the mother and young daughter at dinner, with the mother as the Bush administration and the child as the U.S. public:

Mother: "It's a surge, dear."

Child: "I say it's escalation, and I say the hell with it!"

The inspiration for this is today's front-page story in the Washington Post, in which it becomes clear that the Joint Chiefs of Staff share the child's opinion, if not her frankness.

I wrote a letter to the editor urging an end to the use of the 'surge' euphemism, given the damage done by a year's worth of calling the civil war 'sectarian violence'. If sending 20,000 more troops to Baghdad isn't an escalation, I don't know what is.

Update: 19 Dec 2:00 pm - Pat Lang and Ray McGovern know what's going on, and make the case against escalation while bemoaning it as a done deal with Cheney and Bush at the helm:

once an “all or nothing” offensive like the “surge” contemplated has begun, there is no turning back. It will be “victory” over the insurgents and the Shia militias or palpable defeat, recognizable by all in Iraq and across the world.

I and tens of thousands like me should be marching on the White House and obstructing traffic with die-ins in D.C., holding signs like We say it's escalation, and we say the hell with it!

But I'm taking my first homemade wreath to my cousins' house instead.

P.S. Yes, I failed once again to deliver on the garden blogging. I'm a terrible blogger.