Posted on 06/30/2021 12:30:13 PM PDT by jroehl
Known unknowns
I’m joking. Partly
Actually the Growing euphemisms drive me nuts. Someone couldn’t bear to say “die” so invented “pass away”. Then even that became too much to bear so they abbreviate good English and say “pass”. Can’t even deal with “away”.
It’s all in the same family as Negro-colored-black-AA and crippled-handicapped-disabled. It’s foolishness and is going to be declared “offensive” some day anyway.
Off my soap box
Rummy was a good man.
A few months ago a nurse told me this about Covid and the “Covid Vaccines”.
“We don’t know what we don’t know.”
Spot on.
I respected him more after reading the book, it moved me to the middle.
RIP, Mr. Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld’s CV includes lying to the American public about WMD’s in order to justify sending thousands of American soldiers overseas to fight and die in some Godforsaken craphole. Not sure many can match that.
Oh man, such sad news. RIP Donald Rumsfeld. You fought the good fight. I got to meet him once at a Washington Capitals game. He was very gracious.
Yes indeed.
RIP.
Passed on to heaven.
Passed from this life to the next.
Died. Only physically.
They’ve declared bathrooms for men and women foolishness. They’ve declared the American Flag offensive.
I don’t really care what “they” think.
Well, THEY are generally the ones who adjust the language to fit their narrative, too.
Thus, I’m not a fan of modifying words and phrases. Say what you mean!
Tough smart guy. I admired a lot about him
The present couldnt carry his water.
Wrong actually, Saddam was a soviet backed dictator.
Passed away has been in the language since about 1400.
“’Pass away’ must be one of the oldest euphemisms known in English. It was coined at a time and place, that is, the 15th century in England, when most people would have believed that the departing of the soul of a dead person was a literal physical event. Indeed, ‘passing away’ didn’t mean dying as it does now. When wakes were held for recently deceased people the attendees believed that the dead person could hear and comprehend everything that was being said: it was only later, when the funeral rites were complete, that the dead person ‘passed away’ and began the journey toward either Heaven or Hell.
As such, ‘pass away’ wouldn’t have been considered euphemistic but merely a literal description of events.
The Lay Folks Mass Book, circa 1400 has an very early of the use of ‘passed away’, in Middle English:”
That’s not even what I am talk8ng about. Its everything after the fact in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyone still defending either one of those globalists is either in the tank, or hasn’t been paying attention..
Unlike many, I really liked Rummy. I thought if we had just pulled out after capturing Saddam and taking Baghdad, he would have gone down as a very successful SecDef, even without WMDs. The occupation, not the invasion, is what hurt.
Rumsfeld backed Bremer, a wrong guy to administer the Coalition Authority. He disbanded the Ba'athist Party so everyone with guns went home and had no jobs. Of course, they led the uprising.
We needed to find a way to keep the Sunni in the government without alienating the Shi'ites (and the Kurds). But that may not had been possible.
Whoever was heading the Coalition Authority was going to be screwed. But probably no one could **** it up more than Bremer.
3 state proposal might had been the best solution. Each tribe would have their own Governor. Clone the U.S. Senate so each state would have 20 Senators. The American system might work better than the parliamentary democracy they have over there.
Unfortunately, it was just one of a long line of errors in the Middle East going back to the divisions at the end of World War I. Other than for Israel, trying to impose an American or any civilized Representative Republican or Parliamentary Democracy on Mohammadan states simply doesn’t work. Until that ideology is purged, most require a brutal strongman to keep any semblance of order.
Yeah, I said at the time… US is better at breaking things, UN is better at babysitting the clean up after. Each should own its strengths.
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