overseas contingency operations

bilby commented on the word overseas contingency operations

"Spending unconscionable sums of public money on military action may, in the long run, prove far harder, too. Americans will pony up endlessly when we are at war. They are less likely to shell out so quickly for the proposed successor phrase to the Global War on Terror: Overseas Contingency Operations. As Escobar notes, this 'delightfully Orwellian' term is known to the bureaucrats by its equally Orwellian acronym, OCO.

The bad news is that nobody can say exactly what an OCO is. A war requires at least a convincing illusion of threat to the nation. An OCO, on the other hand, can be just about anything. It doesn't have to be over any literal seas; it merely has to aim at a target outside U.S. borders (even as close as Mexico). It doesn't have to involve shoot-'em-up military action, only an action -- kidnapping, computer hacking, whatever -- carried out by U.S. government operatives."

- Ira Chernus, Requiem for the War on Terror, tomdispatch.com, 9 April 2009.

April 10, 2009

chained_bear commented on the word overseas contingency operations

Wow. The ad on this page is really... quite something. It looks like some kind of bodice-ripper-type porn!

April 10, 2009

sionnach commented on the word overseas contingency operations

See, I just get ads that invite me in Spanish to improve my English. Sometimes they feature a charming wench, who I think is meant to be English, with a little dialog bubble asking

"Would you like to have a dinner with me?"

which is a little unfortunate, given the context. If I were really interested in improving my English, that unidiomatic placement of the indefinite article should surely give me pause.

April 10, 2009

reesetee commented on the word overseas contingency operations

*loves AdBlock Plus*

April 11, 2009

bilby commented on the word overseas contingency operations

What ads? :-)

April 11, 2009