The Romance Of The Empty Rhetoric

Pruden and Politics ^ | March 6 2012 | Wesley Pruden

[Brian Allen]

Words, words, words. Stonewall Jackson famously told soldiers to “make short speeches, and when you draw the sword throw away the scabbard.”

Barack Obama is obsessed with words, and he never learned to make a short speech, and he’s certainly no Stonewall Jackson. The Israelis understand that, however well-meaning he may be. The president may even believe most of the stuff he hears himself say.

Mr. Obama made another pretty speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, on Sunday that was thrilling only to those who gorge on the romance of rhetoric. Mr. Obama and his teleprompter put on a show of bluffery that was surely the envy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Iran’s leaders should know,” the president said, “that I do not have a policy of containment. I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I’ve made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests.”

Almost any Iranian truck driver could guide a Mack truck through the loopholes with no fear of scratching the paint. The president won’t hesitate when it’s “necessary” to defend the United States and its “interests.” The president, of course, will decide when it’s “necessary,” and he gets to determine what those “interests” may be. It may be “necessary” to reassure the Islamic world by doing nothing beyond making still another speech. The “interests” of the United States, as Mr. Obama might define them, could only be defended by another bow from the presidential waist .....

[Brian Allen]

.... The president may even believe most of the stuff he hears himself say ....

Should perhaps (?) read: The president may even believe that part he comprehends, even partially, of the stuff other pathological narcissists write and that cause him to visibly puff-up at the sound of the big words he hears dribbling down his ever-more-Mussolini-angled chin, as he, like us, hears them for the first time.

[nathanbedford]

The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.

That according to Wikipedia is what Stonewall Jackson actually said. It is improper to distort the words of such a great man.

Wes Pruden might well revise the headline.

[LeopoldvonRanke]

What, actually citing one of the Rebs accurately?

Who do you think you are? ;)

[sauropod]

The “interests” of the United States, as Mr. Obama might define them, could only be defended by another bow from the presidential waist.

Ouch!

Nobody can do a putdown like Wes Pruden. That man wields the English language like a broadsword.

[sauropod]

I’ll give Pruden a pass on that, given his past service to the cause.