The new GOP poll-tested buzzword on Iraq: "ADJUST"

[alcibiades_mystery]

and its variants: adjusting, adjusted, adjustments, etc.

I heard this word three times during an NPR Report on the General's statement from Baghdad yesterday. Bush used it today, and if you listen, it is in all the news reports on the Abazaid's visit to DC for "consultations." They are "consultations" about "adjusting" tactics (notably not strategy, though).

You heard it here first. For the next three weeks, you will be inundated with talk of "adjustments." The GOP has gone to the media and said that their theme is "adjustment." This theme has very clearly been poll-tested and decided upon. The word frequency is too great for it to have just popped into the head of Bush and the general, and the NPR reporter all at the same time.

So, why "adjust" rather than some other word? First, it probably polled well, especially among the nervous base. It indicates a tweaking rather than a wholesale change, as if the major components are in place and working, but simply need fine-tuning. In this way, it seeks to capture both the idea of staying the course and changing the course. It sounds vaguely technical in its nuance (the technician needs to come over and adjust some settings), but not too technical, because you can also adjust your own equipment. It can refer to both serious problems (adjusting your medication) and simple annoyances (adjusting your receiver) - so it includes those who view the problem either way. It is "plain English" and can therefore be portrayed as "straight talk" by the media (how different the military tenor and cadence of "redeployment," which literally means nothing to most people).

It is, indeed, a brillliant word to use for all these reasons, but I think all the brilliant wordsmiths in the world can't solve the major problem that is facing the GOP: people have had it with these clever word games. people want the thump thump thump of US and Iraqi deaths to just fucking stop - the ceaseless repettition of the same: 2 troops killed, 2 troops killed, 2 troops killed, 46 Iraqis dead in car bombings, 89 Iraqis dead in car bombings, 34 Iraqis killed in car bombings. If there's one thing the American psyche can't tolerate, it is repetition - this is why "stay the course" failed so miserably. It's like asking somebody to watch the same episode of Seinfeld for the next three months, and three months after that...this sort of shit doesn't work in an iPod culture, and besides, it's contrary to the consciousness that mass media has created for us in the early 21st century: the drive toward constant surface difference. Unlike our ancestors, who lived through repetitive structures (seasons, ritual, harvesting, etc), our consciousness is designed for continuous variation: new show, new season, new clothes, new, new, new, new!!! (It's the only way caputalism can build a workable capitalist consciousness, market-wise). So, how do you defeat a capitalist consciousness? By subtraction: not spectacular events (Tet offensives), but by the endless repetition of the same. The insurgents in Iraq seemed to have figured this out, and it accounts for the general funk over the war in the West.

"Adjustment" won't be enough to overcome that drive, and the damage the endless repetition of the same in Iraq is having on it. It would be like telling our Seinfeld victim that you're going to adjust the contrast of the screen, but he still has to watch that same episode, again, and again, and again, and again...

[progressivebydesign]

1. Adjust is easier to pronounce than "cut and run"...

which is what Bush and his cronies would do in Iraq if they wouldn't be losing billions in fat contracts. The repubs don't want to be in Iraq, but the billion dollar industry that is enriching a handful of policy makers demands that we stay there. What would happen to all of the contractors who are running the concessions there? You know the Baskin Robbins in the middle of the Green Zone. What would Halliburton do if cut from this massive cash cow suddenly? Makes me ill how they trade the lives of our military for their own greedy ventures. That's the ONLY reason they won't leave.. .oh, and we have to establish a new permanent military base and an oil structure that benefits American and Saudi oil interests. (we need the military base to protect the oil interests don'tcha know?).

[Tanuki]

10. also easier to pronounce than "flip flop" n/t

[Mz Pip]

2. I heard ADAPT

a lot a acouple of weeks ago. Mehlman was using it on all the talk shows. In stead of 'cut and run' it was 'stay and adapt.'

Guess they went back to the thesaurus for another word when ADAPT didn't get any traction.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[librechik]

5. oh, Adapt is so last week

adaptation didn't work, but Adjusting will, you'll see! Victory is right up the road after Adjusting!

[guinivere]

14. So true.

Once the Decider Adjusts, everything will fall into place.

[PerfectSage]

11. Their base doesn't believe in the Theory of Evolution

Which is why they can't 'ADAPT'.

[Infomaniac]

3. Hmmmm.

I wonder why the ee-jits didn't "adjust" or make "adjustments" sooner? Could it be because the American electorate has "adjusted" its view of this war? Are the neocons adjusting their rose-colored glasses? Stay tuned for more adjustments from the seriously mal-adjusted idiots in the Bush Administration.

[AIJ Alom]

4. The American people are going to make an adjustment too by electing a

Democratic majority in both the House and Senate.

[Imagevision]

6. The latest, "cut and run to walk and talk" (Tony Snow)

[DesertRat]

7. * said that he won't confirm that we use waterboarding

because if he did, the enemy will "Adjust". To quote John Stewart, just how does one "adjust" to drowning? Grow gills?

[genie_weenie]

8. Mr. President let me "adjust" you by

kicking you square in the nuts...

[Gabi Hayes]

9. Excellent. more from the Bernays/Geobbels school of political hucksterism

remember when "victory" was the mot de jour for their political marketing strategy?

this was quite a topic a few months ago.

here's the Duke professor who was behind the push

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/377154.html

.....Peter Feaver was revealed to have been the original author of the online document that details Bush's plans for Iraq. The document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," was released Nov. 30, the day Bush spoke to the U.S. Naval Academy.



The strategy report

The report described the ingredients necessary for victory in Iraq, which included steady progress at defeating terrorists and a growing role by Iraqis in providing for the country's security. It described a set of goals for strengthening Iraqi democracy and government institutions and rebuilding the economy. And it reviewed the successes in Iraq so far, such as the holding of parliamentary elections. A sample chapter title: "Our Strategy for Victory Is Clear."

Although the plan was dismissed by many Democrats as containing nothing new, it appears to have helped Bush with the public. According to the Rasmussen Reports polling agency, 48 percent of Americans now think the country is winning the war on terror, up nine points from November and the highest confidence rate this year. The survey was conducted after Bush's speech. The Bush administration would not talk in detail about Feaver's role in writing the Iraq document, calling its development a collaboration. The council's Iraq Directorate led the effort, and Feaver was among many council staffers offering comment over several months, according to a prepared statement from Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council.

Feaver is not allowed to give interviews.







Bush's "Iraq victory" speech crafted by opinion polls

Scott Shane
New York Times
December 3, 2005


http://www.notinourname.net/war/iraq-victory-3dec05.htm

Based on their study of poll results from the first two years of the war, Dr. Gelpi, Dr. Feaver and Jason Reifler, then a Duke graduate student, took issue with what they described as the conventional wisdom since the Vietnam War - that Americans will support military operations only if American casualties are few.

They found that public tolerance for the human cost of combat depended on two factors: a belief that the war was a worthy cause, and even more important, a belief that the war was likely to be successful.

In their paper, "Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq," which is to be published soon in the journal International Security, Dr. Feaver and his colleagues wrote: "Mounting casualties did not produce a reflexive collapse in public support. The Iraq case suggests that under the right conditions, the public will continue to support military operations even when they come with a relatively high human cost."

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Kizick

[Disturbed]

13. How is the Busholini Regime going to "adjust" Anbar province?

The Washington Post reports that Col. Pete Devlin's assessment, written in mid-August, also says that "there is almost nothing the US military can do to improve the political and social situation there."

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically – and that's where wars are won and lost." The "very pessimistic" statement, as one Marine officer called it, was dated Aug. 16 and sent to Washington shortly after that, and has been discussed across the Pentagon and elsewhere in national security circles. "I don't know if it is a shock wave, but it's made people uncomfortable," said a Defense Department official who has read the report. ...

Devlin reports that there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force, said the Army officer, who has read the report. Another person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/dailyUpdate.html

That's 50,000 sq. miles of Iraq controlled by al Q. A Hell of a lot more territory than al A. controlled in Afghanistan. Americans won't hear or read much about this and the Busholini Regime are accountable for it.

[KoKo]

15. interesting...isn't it...........