I meant I was using similar phrasing to say something altogether different.
tergiversation \tuhr-jiv-uhr-SAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act of practicing evasion or of being deliberately ambiguous.
2. The act of abandoning a party or cause.
I had to look it up.
BTTT
Did you have to crack the dictionary for tergiversation? I did.
The Sunnis and their supporters have to be made to realize that the alternative is that they will have a rump state after a civil war. The Kurds and the Shia Arabs will each have their own states with oil. The Sunnis may have their own state, but they won't have oil.
Ping for later reading.
But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation's body and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived on, the America we know would have perished.
That spirit -- that faith -- speaks to us in our daily lives in ways often unnoticed, because they seem so obvious. It speaks to us here in the Capital of the Nation. It speaks to us through the processes of governing in the sovereignties of 48 States. It speaks to us in our counties, in our cities, in our towns, and in our villages. It speaks to us from the other nations of the hemisphere, and from those across the seas -- the enslaved, as well as the free. Sometimes we fail to hear or heed these voices of freedom because to us the privilege of our freedom is such an old, old story.
The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of prophecy spoken by our first President in his first inaugural in 1789 -- words almost directed, it would seem, to this year of 1941: "The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered deeply, finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people."
If we lose that sacred fire--if we let it be smothered with doubt and fear -- then we shall reject the destiny which Washington strove so valiantly and so triumphantly to establish. The preservation of the spirit and faith of the Nation does, and will, furnish the highest justification for every sacrifice that we may make in the cause of national defense.
In the face of great perils never before encountered, our strong purpose is to protect and to perpetuate the integrity of democracy.
For this we muster the spirit of America, and the faith of America.
We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.
FDR,1941 Inaugural address.
The War on Terror is not complete. Particularly, Syria and Iran remain havens of support for world terrorism. (Perhaps the Sudan and Somalia?)
In any case, THE issue with World Terrorism is state support. If we remove all state support, then the terrorists will always be in fear of the knock on the door and will have no place to rest, plan, operate.
Therefore, Iraq was a necessary step. The end of our presence in Iraq could be as simple as declaring it has gone on as far as we've deemed fit to take it, or it could be as difficult as saying we need to get everyone in Iraq thinking in the patterns of western democracies.
I'm in favor of the end-certain being defined by our need to act elsewhere in the war on terror. That would mean a fledgling government in place in Iraq....as early as 6 months from now. But to leave Syria and Iran intact on the border of Iraq is to leave the war on terror incomplete.
btt
I don't know if we ever tame the wild ass (Ishmael) of Islam short of eliminating Mecca/Medina. Our efforts may be futile in Iraq but I know that if we bug out in Iraq, China will move in with Iraq and try to control MidEast oil flows. Russia is also salivating, both can provide a nuclear umbrella to Iran for it do as it pleases. Which would be to dictate oil prices and establish surcharges on customers they want to screw