> desperate; our enemies are dangerous" - President Bush, April 2, 2003.
"The more progress we make on the ground . . . the more > desperate these killers become" - Bush, Oct. 28, 2003.
"As June 30 approaches, the enemies of freedom grow ever more > desperate to prevent the rise of democracy in Iraq" - Bush, May 20, 2004.
"As those elections draw near, the > desperation of the killers will grow and the violence could escalate'' - Bush, Nov. 12, 2004.
"What you're seeing is a group of frustrated and > desperate people who kill innocent life" - Bush, May 31, 2005.
Ever since U.S. troops invaded Iraq more than two years ago, members of the Bush administration have repeatedly described insurgents as "desperate." They were desperate as soldiers entered Baghdad in 2003; as the United States prepared to return sovereignty to Iraq in 2004; as Iraqis registered to vote in early 2005.
And with this year more than half over, insurgents are still "desperate," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said July 20 after a series of suicide bombings killed more than 200 people.
The president himself has used the word on at least 27 different occasions, closely followed by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (22 times, including four in a single press conference).
Throw in comments by Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. military leaders, and the number of times "desperate" pops up in official speech soars to more than 80, an Internet search reveals.
"It's amazing how many times they say certain things over and over and over again despite the fact it largely flies in the face of what's happening," says Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
If you interpret desperate as "last-ditch" or "last gasp," it hardly seems the right word to use in describing an insurgency that has raged for 27 months. But if, as Pena notes, you interpret it as a rash or violent act born of despair, it might seem fairly accurate.
"Interpretation is always in the eye of the beholder - certainly those people who are more supportive of the White House and its policy in Iraq come away with a different meaning" than those who criticize it, Pena says.
"In one sense, the insurgents are desperate in they they don't want to see the new government succeed and they are clearly engaged in acts of violence. Those could be construed as desperate acts but does that mean the insurgency is tailing off or running out of steam? Not necessarily."
Despite White House suggestions that the insurgency is indeed tailing off, there have been some recent cracks in the "all-is-going-well" facade.
While Cheney claimed in May that the insurgency was in its "last throes," the top commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, told a U.S. Senate committee in June that it had not weakened.
Just recently, the new American ambassador to Iraq openly warned the country could erupt in civil war unless the insurgency is soon quashed. And even Rumsfeld expressed impatience with the degree of progress, telling Iraqi leaders last week that they needed to resolve their differences and move forward on political, economic and security fronts.
Still, administration and military officials are being careful in their pronouncements about Iraq.
"Nobody is coming out and saying absolutely flatly that the president and vice president are wrong. It's more subtle and nuanced than that yet at the same time it's obvious," Pena says.
"When Abizaid says the insurgency is as strong as it was six months ago, that's a fairly obvious statement - he doesn't have to say anybody is lying about it."
Among those struck by how often Bush and others have called insurgents "desperate" is a Canadian who is compiling their quotes on the Web site www.hairyfishnuts.com The name comes from a Bloom County comic strip in which Opus, the addled penguin, is confused about the name of the Hare Krishnas.
Desperate "certainly doesn't describe a terror group that has kept up a steady pattern of attacks and chaos and can strike at will pretty much anywhere they like," the 34-year-old Webmaster said in an e-mail.
"So I punched it into Google and was surprised at the returns. They just kept coming."
Susan Taylor Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com
[Last modified July 31, 2005, 01:33:10]
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