About This Site

Figaro rips the innards out of things people say and reveals the rhetorical tricks and pratfalls. For terms and definitions, click here.
(What are figures of speech?)
Ask Figaro a question!

This form does not yet contain any fields.

    « We Will Not Discuss Flatulence | Main | Congress Discovers Constitutional Fine Print »
    Monday
    Oct022006

    Take My War. Please.

    bush_joke.jpgQuote:  “If we have a military strategy, I can’t identify it.  I don’t know what’s worse — that they have one and won’t tell us or that they don’t have one.” Stephen Hadley, then deputy national security advisor, in an excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book.

    Figure of Speech: dilemma, the figure of unsavory choice.  From the Greek, meaning “double point.”

    Early in the war — back when Condi Rice was the national security advisor, and before Stephen Hadley moved up to take her place — the two met with their top Iraq official, who had just returned from Baghdad.  The man was bothered by the sparse number of American troops.  According to a new Woodward exposé, Hadley responded with a dilemma.

    This figure of thought often appears in good-news bad-news jokes.  (Doc:  “The good news is, you have 24 hours to live.  The bad news is that I forgot to call you yesterday.”)

    Want more black humor?  Get the painstakingly reported Fiasco: The Military Adventure in Iraq.  Only that reads more like a bad-news bad-news joke.

    Snappy Answer:  “The good news is, you can torture it out of them.”

    PrintView Printer Friendly Version

    EmailEmail Article to Friend

    Reader Comments (2)

    And if Bob Woodward has a strategy, we certainly 'do' know what it is: Atone for his previous book in which the Bushies come off as heroes.

    The only thing Woodward 'exposes' in his'expose' is that he watches CNN a lot. Somehow, some way, he has single-handedly, painstakingly, figured it all out, the shocking truth; that these idiots have no war strategy. I did that two years ago sitting on my couch in my underwear.

    Personally, there's something to be said for the way things used to be, when reporters gleaned their stories hanging out in late night parking garages with Hal Holbrook, or re-arranging flower pots on apartment balconies and such.
    October 2, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterTom Heehler
    Snappy answer: Follow the money.
    October 2, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterTom Heehler

    PostPost a New Comment

    Enter your information below to add a new comment.

    My response is on my own website »
    Author Email (optional):
    Author URL (optional):
    Post:
     
    All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.