I'm in complete agreement here, since I posted the following on Daily Kos yesterday:
Escalation is a great word I'm pretty sure that the word they did not want to use is "escalation", since this word was used to death during the Vietnam war. Which is exactly why we should be using it. From Wikipedia: Escalation is the phenomenon of something getting more intense step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, military presence and nuclear armament during the Cold War. (Compare to escalator, a device that lifts something to a higher level.) The term is said to be originally coined by Herman Kahn. Vietnam is exactly the right analogy here, and we need to keep at it. "Surge" seems to suggest that this is temporary. Which given the lack of any plan by the administration, it certainly is not. "Escalation" suggests that there would be no end in sight, and that we can expect casualties of both Americans and Iraqis to keep escalating right along with it.
I'm pretty sure that the word they did not want to use is "escalation", since this word was used to death during the Vietnam war. Which is exactly why we should be using it.
From Wikipedia:
Escalation is the phenomenon of something getting more intense step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, military presence and nuclear armament during the Cold War. (Compare to escalator, a device that lifts something to a higher level.) The term is said to be originally coined by Herman Kahn.
Vietnam is exactly the right analogy here, and we need to keep at it. "Surge" seems to suggest that this is temporary. Which given the lack of any plan by the administration, it certainly is not. "Escalation" suggests that there would be no end in sight, and that we can expect casualties of both Americans and Iraqis to keep escalating right along with it.
Cool -- sorry I missed it!
