Obama administration: It’s not war, it’s Kinetic Military Action!

Consider the three-letter acronym that can be formed by that.

Background: our adventure in Libya is apparently the War That Dare Not Speak Its Name.  At least, the White House seems absolutely, completely determined to avoid the ‘war’ word, to the point where administration officials actually used the laugh-out-loud weasel term ‘kinetic military action‘ to describe the situation.  ‘Kinetic’ is definitely the buzzword in play, here: Defense Secretary Gates himself said that if our ad hoc cobbling together of largely unrelated objectives and media-friendly visuals plan works then “the level of kinetic activity should decline.”

You are about to see why Rush Limbaugh has a multimillion dollar talk radio empire that dominates its particular market, and I am an admittedly-amiable and reasonably creative guy blogging from home. Because this is prime stuff here (via Hot Air) coming from Rush:

RUSH: I swear, this is surreal. KMA, kinetic military activity has replaced WTF, (laughing) which is winning the future. I’m sure you thought it was something else. (laughing) Kick my — has replaced what the — Okay, so I guess we’re to assume it’s not a protest anymore. It’s a kinetic assembling action. It’s not a riot. It’s kinetic thuggery action. It’s not a vacation. It’s kinetic leisure action. It’s not golf. It’s kinetic ball striking action. It’s not dancing. It’s kinetic foot action. It’s not sex. It’s kinetic Lewinsky. (laughing) I’m not drunk. I’ve been engaging in kinetic adult beverage action. It’s not an election. It’s kinetic voting action. It’s not radio. It’s kinetic Limbaugh action. Whatever. Kinetic means motion. Military means armed forces. Action means motion. Kinetic action, moving motion. And these are the smartest people in the world.

That last sentence is obviously sarcasm, because it’s just as obviously not true.  But I will contradict Mr. Limbaugh on one point: the right word in the three-letter acronym that he’s implying is not ‘kick.’ It’s ‘kiss:’ and the real question is, which group has been invited to kinetic the President’s military action? Is it the Left, who wake up every morning to discover that the Democratic leadership isn’t even trying to lie to them anymore about how the Democrats ever really believed all that antiwar nonsense? Is it the Right, who are beginning to develop a head of steam over the way that the administration isn’t taking this war – yes, I wrote ‘war’  – anything close to seriously?  Or is it the American public, who is hopefully being carefully taught that we’ve been saddled with a White House with a foreign policy that cribs everything from the Bush administration, with the glaring exception of basic competence?

Or are we dealing with a “All of the above is true?”  Fair warning: I’m reluctant to accept that theory.  It implies that this administration is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, and I’m blessed if I can think of a time when they’ve demonstrated any ability along those lines.

Moe Lane

PS: The reason why the administration keeps making rookie mistakes like these in terms of obvious messaging goofs (Winning The Future, anyone?) is because they are rookies, and for many of them this is the first time that they’re not being graded on a curve.  From the President on down.

And, hey, we told you so.