Mistakes and confusions

I note with some relief in the paper today that a cliché shift may be occurring. For the last little while when Bush administration officials wanted to sound all tough and serious they would lard their posturing with the phrase “make no mistake.” Make no mistake, no one they were talking about was impressed by this. And make no mistake, I’m a little tired by it.

As Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has been one of the chief advocates for making no mistakes, so she’s sort of an official barometer of craptastic gummint lingo. Imagine my delight, then, seeing her remarks on Iran’s recent missile tests. Given the opportunity to tell those pesky reprobates yet again to make no mistake about our commitment to ensuring Middle Eastern peace through war, the Sec instead said “I don’t think the Iranians are too confused… about the capability and power of the United States to do exactly that” (capability and power being subtly distinct things in the world of international diplomacy), and “[w]e take very, very strongly our obligation to help our allies defend themselves, and no one should be confused about that.”

Hooray! A new era! Let mistakes be banished, and confusion reign.

Now if we can just get rid of all those references to “blood and treasure….”