Why English Will Eventually Disappear

It is an overreaction to dedicate an entire entry to a Bush speech. I am clearly not his target audience. But just take note of the following short excerpts from his recent remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations on December 7, and remember the entire world hears these statements.

“Mosul is also the city where our troops brought justice to Saddam's sons in the summer of 2003.”

This is Bush equating justice with the savage slaughter of human beings, and at a time when we are trying to convince (ineffectively) the world that we do not torture.

“Listen, the Iraqi people expect money to be spent openly and honestly -- and so do the American people.”

So true: Energy spending? Transportation spending and FEMA? GAO report on the illegal use of public funds for propaganda related to health care? Billions of dollars awarded, not/not through the mandated tendering process, to Halliburton in Afghanistan and Iraq?

“We increased the amount of money our military commanders had at their disposal for flexible use.”

Do not fool yourself. This is not a diplomatic mission, but a military one. And “flexible disposal” is not governed by any parameters which could ever be used to hold a single person accountable.

“The rejectionists are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group…The Saddamists are former regime loyalists who harbor dreams of returning to power -- and they’re trying to foment anti-democratic sentiment among the larger Sunni community.”

What exactly is the difference between a rejectionist and a Saddamist? I am guessing one is more likely to find himself on the losing end of military might, while the other will learn that embracing American democracy pays.

The playwright Harold Pinter, who just won the Nobel Prize for Literature, said in his acceptance speech that "politics works against truth, surrounding citizens with 'a vast tapestry of lies' spun by politicians eager to cling to power. [He] said it was the duty of the writer to hold an image up to scrutiny, and the duty of citizens 'to define the real truth of our lives and our societies. If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man,' he said." The link from the title of this entry will take you to the NYTimes article about his speech.

English will eventually be replaced by other languages as history dictates. It has already begun, as White House speech writers prove that the words no longer have any meaning, and the man has no dignity.