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    Monday
    Jul312006

    A Glass Half Full of Quagmire

    bushglass.jpgQuote:  “If this is an opportunity, what’s Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?”  Richard Haass, former official with the Bush State Department, in the Washington Post.

    Figure of Speechdiasyrmus (di-a-SYR-mus), the ridiculous comparison.

    In his weekly radio address, Bush called the war in Lebanon “a moment of opportunity.”  That got a laugh out of Richard Haass, who was the State Department’s policy director during Bush’s first term. Haass ridicules Bush’s knee-jerk optimism with a diasyrmus (“tearing apart”), a comparison that reduces the opponent’s point to absurdity.

    The diasyrmus is a powerful figure because it’s tough to answer without digging yourself even deeper into absurdity.  Which, come to think of it, does not seem to bother this president.

    Snappy Answer:  “Halliburton sure thought so.”

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    Reader Comments (1)

    In sales speak, we Americans could then say that North Korea is a lead and Iran is a cold call.
    August 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterDoc L

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