Pretending it's not a war

Rich Lowry, Politico - When she left the White House the other day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shared with reporters her conversation with her five-year old grandson.

She recounted how he asked her whether she supported “war” in Syria. Before telling the rest of the story, she paused to note to the assembled journalists the precocious tike’s overly aggressive and politically incorrect language. “Now, he’s five years old … and he’s saying ‘war,’” she explained. “I mean, we’re not talking about war, we’re talking about an action here.”

From the mouth of babes. The child has a better grasp of the connection between words and reality than his grandma. But, no doubt, he will grow out of it. By the time he becomes an elected Democratic official supporting some military intervention or other, he will have learned the necessary argot of euphemism and denial.

Secretary of State John Kerry is a master at it. In his opening statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he said, “Let me be clear: President Obama is not asking America to go to war.” He then doubled down on his commitment in an exchange with Sen. Rand Paul: “We don’t want to go to war in Syria, either. It’s not what we’re here to ask. The president is not asking you to go to war.”

Despite his reputation, Secretary Kerry is rigorously consistent —he’s anti-war when he’s opposing a war and testifying against it in Congress, and he’s anti-war when he’s supporting a war and testifying for it in Congress.