White House: Libya fight is not war, it’s ‘kinetic military action’

The Obama Adminstration has authorized and ordered American war planes and tomahawk missiles to attack Libya, but this is not “war.” At least, the Obama Administration refuses to pronounce the word “war.” Why? The Constitution of the United States requires Congress to declare war. And Congress was not consulted, and did not authorize the use of force.

Hence, Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser, is quoted by the Washington Examiner: “

I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone,” Rhodes said. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.”

Obviously, the political oracles have declared this is not a war, just kinetic military action. George Orwell anticipated this obfuscation. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.