John O’Neil’s lead story in the New York Times today has the headline “Troops Sent in Surge to Have Limited Role, Bush Aide Says.” Bad choice of words says MoveOn.org!
MoveOn.org, which as gathered nearly 300,000 signatures on a “Stop the Escalation” petition in the past two days, and which plans more than 300 “Stop the Escalation” rallies on Thursday night nationwide, notes that “Surge” does not appear in the Department of Defense’s official Dictionary of Military Terms. The term that’s listed is
“escalation”: (DOD) A deliberate or unpremeditated increase in scope or violence of a conflict.
Public and media opposition to escalation continues to grow.
Disclosure: I am a member of the media squad of MoveOn.org, and I have emailed Mr. O’Neil and called the National Desk of the Times to make my views known.
