Idiocy

ConnecticutBLOG has a video of Joe Lieberman spouting nonsense on Meet the Press: "My own sense of history tells me that in war ultimately there are two exit strategies. One is called 'victory', the other is called 'defeat'." Mr. Lieberman, I do not think that word means what you think it means. Consider the dictionary definition of strategy:

1. Also, strategics. the science or art of combining and employing the means of war in planning and directing large military movements and operations.
2. the use or an instance of using this science or art.
3. skillful use of a stratagem.
4. a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world.

By any of those definitions, strategy is the means, not the end. Any sensible person would realize that "victory" and "defeat" are outcomes (i.e. the end). They are not strategies (i.e. means). What bothers me about this mangling of the language is that it may not be cynical rhetoric intended to accuse Bush's critics of undermining the war effort by "choosing defeat". I suspect that Senator Lieberman and all the Busheviks genuinely believe that the U.S. can achieve victory in Iraq by saying forcefully enough that it's what we want. Achieving the desired outcome by really and truly believing in it works in fairy tales. How do we convince these idiots that it doesn't work in real life?