Words That Annoy Me

Redeployment - Most recently used by any number of politicians who are calling for American troops to exit Iraq. A vocal Iraq critic, Representative John Murtha (D.-Pa.) stated: (from The Politico)

On Friday, Murtha, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, clarified his remarks. The surge, he said, “has created a window of opportunity for the Iraqi government,’’ which he added has “failed to capitalize on the political and diplomatic steps that the surge was designed to provide.”

“The fact remains that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily, and that we must begin an orderly redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as practicable,” Murtha said.

According to The Free Dictionary, redeployed means:

1. To move (military forces) from one combat zone to another.

2. To shift (something) from one place or use to another for greater effectiveness.

Arguably, most politicians are probably referring to the first definition, as opposed to the second. If so, where do they propose to redeploy U.S. forces? Last I checked, there's no combat zone in the United States. Should U.S. forces be loaded on transports and sent to the Horn of Africa, or Afghanistan, or perhaps to support a notional peacekeeping operation in Pakistan? Accordingly, where does Representative Murtha intend on redeploying our forces?

He must be referring to the second definition of redeployment and intends to move our troops back to the U.S., so they can be more effective. But, use of this definition would make Representative Murtha a hypocrite because he opined the additional "surge" troops have been effective in fulfilling their mission.

[Representative Murtha] returned from a trip to Iraq and told reporters Thursday that “the surge is working” to improve security, even though the central government in Baghdad remains “dysfunctional.”

Redeploying the troops to the United States would probably make them much less effective in helping to rebuild Iraq.

So what does redeployment actually mean? Probably, it's politically correct speech for withdrawal, exit, abdication, or heaven forbid - retreat.

Unfortunately, Representative Murtha, like many other vocal war critics, are missing the correct political points, which are the surge continues to work, Iraq is safer, businesses are reopening, citizens are returning, and sectarian violences continues to be reduced. Instead of redeploying our forces, how about we repeat the things that have brought so many rewards?