FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: 'ADAPT' IN IRAQ MEANS 'NOT LOSE'

While Americans have been absorbed news of another suspiciously timed terror alert, the Bush administration has been using a new word to describe what they are doing in Iraq.

Last week, they were saying 'stay the course' to describe their plans.  And if Americans did not support this idea, that meant that they were inviting another terrorist attack. 

Now, Republicans are dumping the prhase 'stay the course' and calling their policy 'adapt and win.' 

RNC Chairman Chairman, Ken Mehlman--no glutton for subtlety--used the word 'adapt' a half-dozen times in a minute the other day on his Meet The Press appearance.

What can Democrats say to respond?  "America has no more time to waste."

Here is the quote from Mehlman with the not-so-subtle use of this new spin:

Look, the fact is our mission in the war in Iraq is critical. We agree on that, we agree that it's wrong to cut and run. But look we're not coming in and saying stay the course. The choice in this election is not between stay the course and cut and run. It's between win by adapting and cut and run. Let me tell you what we're doing. The fact is before the successful Iraqi elections, the number of troops went up from 137,000 to 160,000. That's adapting to win. Recently we increased troops in Baghdad, adapting to win. We changed how the training of Iraqi forces occurred to involve more Iraqis. That's adapting to win.

Yep.  Ken Mehlman is  a desperate man.

But is there a logic in this argument that can hold the debate?  I doubt it.

The image that Mehlman is trying to dispatch is of a Republican leadership that is just sitting on its hands doing nothing.  The Democrats have savaged that perspectve, particularly in the recent Connecticcut Democratic primary where winner Ned Lamont's position was:  we need to change the policy.

They Republicans tried to say that Lamont's policy was really:  cut and run.  But that did not work.  Connecticut voters are smarter than the Republican spin machine.  Much smarter.  And they voted for a new policy in Iraq.

So the RNC has changed its message in an attempt to fight back at what they see as a loss in Connecticut.

'Adapt' is an effort to invoke movement, action, change.  It is  away of saying, 'We are for change!"  without actually changing anything.

What is the change the RNC advocates?  Sending more troops to Baghdad.   All that so-called 'success' leads to more troops in Baghdad?  Even hardcore supporters of the President are starting to see that if you need to send in more troops, that means you are LOSING not winning. 

In a 'war' we can tell  if we are winning, typically, when the fighting decreases.  If the fighting is getting worse, that means: not winning.

What Progressives Can Say:  "Stop Wasting Time"
The simple and straightforward phrase that Progressives can use in the face of this new RNC spin tactic is 'stop wasting time.'

Rather than getting dragged into nonsense arguments about 'adapting' to 'win' an occuation--whatever that means--Progressives can just say something along these lines:

Americans have no more time to waste on these Republican spin campaigns.  We know Iraq is not going well.  We do not need some fancy talk to convince us that more soldiers in Baghdad is somehow a good thing.  It's not a good thing.  More soldiers means one thing and one thing only:  Iraq is getting worse, not better.  Americans want a new direction and they want it right now.  Not a year from now, not two years from now--right now.  We have no more lives, no more money, no more allies and no more time to waste.

The great power of talking about time is that it 'resets' the discussion away from the manipulative tactict that Mehlman is using. All the RNC wants to do with the 'adapt' idea is to lure Democrats into an argument.  When Democrats say 'stop wasting time' in response, they take control of the discussion.

As long as they are in office, the Republicans will try to spin and spin Iraq however they can to keep their poll numbers afloat.  But Americans are well out of patience.

©  2006 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop