Insult Bloat

Last week, Pete Hegseth declared that the war on Iran would be different from previous US military invasions. The Defense Department spokesmodel announced: “The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we’re doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more.”

Now, anyone who remembers the Iraq War knows it was a bloodbath featuring “shock and awe” tactics followed by numerous atrocities against civilians and ghastly revelations of torture. There was widespread public outrage over a few of these incidents, particularly the torture. But the notion that the US had its hands tied by adherence to ethical standards is simply laughable. Which brings us to the larger point of this cartoon: We’ve reached the point where not committing war crimes is being ridiculed as “politically correct.” 

Longtime readers know I despise this phrase, and how its usage (as well as “woke”) has been deployed as a form of linguistic warfare that has successfully redefined morality, human rights, and democracy itself as “liberal” — and therefore weak, effeminate, and inferior.