ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FLAG FOOTBALL?!
Does this quote bother anyone else, regardless of whether you support the war in Iraq?
“Certainly, we’re not declaring victory yet. We’re probably at halftime in a major Super Bowl, maybe not even at halftime yet, and the score’s going back and forth. But, by God, it’s a good game,” Hardy said.
The quote appeared in a story in today's paper about Maj. Gen. Dennis Hardy, whose last day as commander of Fort Riley will be Tuesday.
I could be wrong, but I imagine the parents of the 2600 Americans who died in Iraq don't see it as riveting football game.
posted by kc @ 9:54 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Methinks the general played too much football without a helmet to be calling war a "great game."
Sheesh.
Generals and statesmen used to be eloquent:
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. ~Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, 1864
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin
War is hell. ~Gen. William tecumseh Sherman
"You can no more win a war than you can win an
earthquake."
- Jeannette Rankin, first female member of Congress
"Men love war because it allows them to look serious. Because it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them."
— John Fowles (I can't believe a man wrote that. Tee-hee.)
Compare:
"What's the use of sending a $2 million missile
into a $10 tent to hit a camel in the butt?
- George W. Bush
Tee-hee!
Great, now I'm doing it!
How 'bout this one:
"It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way."
- Dubya
Football is a substitute for warfare in a society where most people never experience warfare firsthand.
So the metaphor is apt. It elegantly illustrates his points in a way that can be easily understood by his intended audience.
How the parents of the Americans who have died in the war would feel about the quote probably depends on how they feel about the war itself.
You honest to God think that's an elegant and apt quote?
"By God, it's a good game" makes my stomach churn.
The metaphor is childish and demeaning and degrades the value of human life.
And whether you think football is an apt metaphor for war is completely independent from the notion that this war has been "a good game." How has it been a good game?
The sports idiom "good game" usually means either side has a chance to win. (When used after a game, it means that either side had a chance to win until late in the game; when used in the middle of a game, it means the game has been close up to that point.) So it's just a way of repeating his claim that "the score's going back and forth."
And as far as elegant and apt, it was very linguistically simple and straightforward and logical (unlike what you usually hear from military folks), and it's apt because it illustrates his point (whether you agree with it) clearly and understandably to his intended audience.
And I'd say that the eloquence of yesteryear can be partly attributed to our distance from their dialect and to their melodrama. (Which doesn't seem as melodramatic because of the dialect.) At least Major General Hardy wasn't melodramatic.
Even if you buy the football-war analogy, that quote is tacky at best. Calling a war where people are dying "a good game" implies that he -- and others -- are enjoying it somehow, which is revolting.
And there's nothing melodramatic about the eloquence of yesteryear. War truly is cruel. It truly does destroy cities and tear apart human beings. There's nothing exaggerated or overly emotional about saying so.
"A good game" could only be used by somebody who sees the entire mess as an interesting chess match. It's not just insensitive, it's reflective of how removed our leaders are from the enormity and consequences of their actions.
The other sense in which a real game is often called a “good game” is that the players show an inspired graceful style. War can never have that. But to use the analogy at all, I would restrict it to a case where a brilliant strategic ploy brought the fighting to a quick and decisive end where one side realized they were defeated without having to be destroyed and thereby shortening the horror.
Nothing about the killing in Iraq looks like that kind of decisive stroke. Instead the killing is just leading to more killing. Civil wars are the ugliest and never show anything like “gamesmanship”.
I remember playing flag football with you. Go team KU Info! We beat them with our big ol' brains.
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