The President's summary of his policy on the Islamic State or on "the group known as ISIL" was not elegantly enunciated: "To degrade and ultimately destroy" is a compound infinitive phrase that is pitched to the demotic or colloquial in ways that contribute to misinterpretation and distortion.
The infinitive "to degrade," a somewhat esoteric military term of art roughly inserted into public discourse some years ago, is meant to refer us immediately to an enemy's capabilities, which are to be brought to a lower level, but the second and more common connotation of "degrade" is quietly also conveyed, perhaps somewhat intentionally if not entirely consciously: to humiliate, to render an object of spite. ((To complete the linguistic circuit from the high to the low, we can observe that in the language of the street, or perhaps the language of the President's "anger translator," to degrade IS is to fuck IS up, to chingar IS, or perhaps to smash IS, like a bug.)) Regarding the phrase in its entirety, the absence of pauses (which could be indicated by commas) and the omission of the second particle "to" run the two parts of the President's program together, and encourage his critics to indulge their impatience or polemical convenience, to drop the qualifying adverb "ultimately" altogether or to treat it as an intensifier, and, as events unfold, to expound on each day's, week's, or month's necessarily mixed results as somehow contradicting a solemn promise or revealing a strategy already "in ruins" or "in full-scale... meltdown," or suffering from a fatal mismatch of minimal means and maximal ends, or, also premature if less dramatic, simply "not working."
"To degrade and, ultimately, to destroy" might have been more difficult to misinterpret, since a more careful phrasing would clearly designate and distinguish two phases of a long-term strategy. As offered and initially implemented, if not as articulated or heard or unconscientiously translated, the strategy seems to mean "at first primarily to contain, but actively to contain in such a way, specifically by reduction of capacities and potentials, as to expose the targeted entity to destruction." Indeed, the two-part program does not exclude - or perhaps can be taken to imply - a policy shaped to the nature of a presumed ultimately self-destructive phenomenon.
On “National-Imperial vs Neo-Imperial”
Well seeing as the administration is so willing to make common cause with the enemies of Israel, forcing yet anothe Jebreel type release, it's not that surprising. then again it's hard to find anyone who will side with us, not India, I wonder why that is, not Afghanistan, not Egypt,
When the last time, Russia was or China was castigated 180-1, for their actions in the Caucasus or Zinjiang province, rank being one of the Security Council, has it's privileges,
On ““Not a Bug Splat” – Drone Warfare and Utopia”
Benazir Bhutto was unavailable for comment, because of what the boys of Apbara helped bring about, some of these same folks were on first name basis with UBL, a drone is a tool, like the tomahawk or a DEVGRU strike team, overuse can make an ineffective tool,
On “Open Thread”
Didn't know it was a thing, Continuum seems to have straightened itself out,
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Noticed this future project, via Io9
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/04/11/syfy-the-expanse/
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You did notice the trendline was within the margin of error, and that indifference index is the same as that in September,
On “The sanity of Chait’s “complete insanity” (race in contemporary American politics)”
So Heidegger, being a nazi bureaucrat cannot be held against him, but race neutral economic policies are themselves racial, nice hat trick.
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Charlie Rangel, the fellow who failed to declare a million dollars in taxes from properties in the Dominican Republic,
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So, what does it say that under the first African American president, black unemployment is at legendary levels, as the fact
that the same administration, displays the same wage gap, among female employees they presume to detect in the wider community,
this evil iteration of Candide, is very silly.
On “Which came first, politics or stupidity?”
They still don't appreciate 'the fundamental transformation' he has wrought, the critique is from the left, ie; why hasn't he pushed for single player,
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the left, has pulled this interesting hat trick, there is no way to really question Obama's abyssmal policies or else one is accused of being a racist, the attacks on the Tea Party were certainly part of this,
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His wife should feed him a high fat diet, so he could die of coronary disease, as to the former, Wright, Khalidi, Bell, Ayers, De Unger, et al, critical legal studies, that the Chaitred piece seems to suffer from,
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Actually, no, Chaitred ignores the color of Obama's politics, an issue we wouldn't have with an Allen West or a Clarence Thomas, of course the left has shown those two so much civility, just consider Julianne Malveaux's helpful suggestion,
On “Open Thread”
Yes, you did see the poll when 25% did not know the Earth revolves around the Sun, lord we are in the 'Crazy Years' as Heinlein described.
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OT, you sprechen, right, with all the German philosophy you've absorbed, here is Snyder's take on Eurasian ideology behind Putin;
http://www.welt.de/kultur/article126343016/Putins-Ideologie-hat-faschistische-Wurzeln.html
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He's of a dissident mindset, perish the thought, Bush then was considered blancmange, Paul has always 'steered his own path'
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He is, because he is most likely a liberal or libertarian, to denounce a significant portion of the Democratic base, is doubleplusungood,
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well that the Jim Crow is coming card, you ignore the reason why they are targeting Eich, as they did the Mormons, low hanging fruit,
just like the reason Obama feigned being against same sex marriage,
the opposition of black and latino churches, otherwise how else would such a proposition pass in California,
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Of course, this ignore that the black and latino churches were most in the forefront of Prop 8, but they pick an easy target like Mormons or Eich, which Mozilla would not exist as we know it without his contributions,
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As has been pointed out, two of the founders of Ok Cupid, donated to two opponents of SSM, Cannon and Obama, Marshall's response 'is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,'
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No argument there, although they wrapped up causality in an odd bow,
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Did you catch the Continuim premiere,
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Well more Mackinder and Mahan, it's the 19th Century Panslavism that was seen in Bely's Petersburg, he is of the Oprichniki class, as with Scheuer, there is a difference between understanding Putin and agreeing with him, the latter is indispensible, the latter is category error,
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the offstated irony, is they are holding Eich to a standard that they wouldn't apply to Obama, if one took him at his word in 2008,
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Well no, the point is to make such thoughts, doubleunplusgood if not crimethink, they have been very successful in Western Europe in that regard,
On “The Hebraic Heidegger (Another Discussion Not To Be Held)”
Von Braun didn't exhibit antisemitism, he was a supreme pragmatist like Sebastian Shaw, Fertwangler I don't recall.
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