Pure Wind

George Orwell, writing in 1946: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice yesterday:

“While we have been and will remain in close consultation with our P5+1 partners on the way forward, we have said that this is a dual track effort - there has been an engagement track which we have been very actively engaged in, but there is also a pressure track,” said Rice. “And as Iran makes choices that seem to indicate that it is not at this stage ready and willing to take up the offers on the engagement track, then we will put greater emphasis on the pressure track. Time is short. And we are serious about implementing to the fullest extent that dual track policy.”

If this is the kind of language our diplomats use during actual negotiations, it’s no wonder US foreign policy is such a bloody and embarrassing disaster.