David Rodeback's Blog

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Iraq Study Group's Terms for US Surrender: It's Time for a New Official Acronym

CESM, that is, for Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys, with a bow to The Simpsons' Groundskeeper Willie.

The Iraq Study Group (ISG) released its not-so-secret report today. It sounds a lot like a timetable for surrender. More commentary will follow, from others and perhaps from me, but here are some things to remember for the moment:

Surrender by any other name is still surrender. The only alternative in this case is victory.

These people are not elected officials. They have only the authority real leaders give them -- and if you know their long experience in government they have less credibility with you than the BMA want to award them.

This is not a war we can avoid or ignore. It is a war we must fight, and therefore it is a war we must win. If it takes 20 years, we should rejoice that it does not take 30 or 50 years.

We fight not because we love war or even because we love oil, but because we love freedom.

There is a great deal more than politics, approval ratings, and inconvenience at stake here. Democracy, freedom, modern civilization . . . Sooner or later, we have to stop being frivolous about it. Sooner would be better than later.

Note that here at the blog we will be referring to the ISG not by its real name, Iraq Study Group, or by a variant I saw today, Iraq Surrender Group. We will use a more apt, more derisive term from The Simpsons: Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys, or CESM. (I'm actually not suggesting that the luminaries in the CESM are particularly fond of cheese or that they are Francophiles.) CESM is hereby officially added to my list of frequent abbreviations here at the blog.

David Rodeback comments (12/12/06):

The New York Post put "Surrender Monkeys" on their front page last week, and the article on the subject includes "Panel Kisses Up to Iran & Syria." The author is Niles Lathem.

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