An Elegy for Ted McGrath: Extraordinary Renditions: Vocabulary for Life in the Metropole

(page under constant construction)

(descending order, according to date added, not ranked quality/cleverness)

89. "The Indians are impelled to war by passions. They have not only no principles of religion or morality to repress their passions, but they are urged forward in their career of blood by all around them." -Lewis Cass, 1827

88. "A grateful community"/"On behalf of a grateful nation"

87. "We take nothing by conquest...thank God." The Whig Intelligencer, 1848

Fort Huachuca in 1894 (US Army via Wikimedia Commons), h/t Alex Avina

86. "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." PM Golda Meir, 1957

Nasser Medical Complex, August 2005 (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

85. Special relationship

84.

83.

82. Prevention through deterrence

https://www.undocumentedmigrationproject.org/hostileterrain94

81. Econ 101/"It's the economy, stupid."

80.

Mythmaking in Action

79.

‘Fort Bragg Has a Lot of Secrets. It’s Its Own Little Cartel’

78.

77.

76.

75.

74. Hometown Heroes (on Main Street)

73.

72.

71.

70.

69. Terra nullius

Heidi Levine

68.

67.

66.

65.

Tom Dooley Statue, Notre Dame

Dr. Tom Dooley's Ties to CIA Are Chronicled

(Anderson Cooper's Past with CIA Is Chronicled
The CIA Helped Build the Content Farm That Churns Out American Literature)

64.

63.

The University of Notre Dame is committed to freedom of expression and the right to protest, but it is equally committed to enforcing restrictions of time, place and manner of demonstrations to ensure a peaceful and orderly campus. To attend to the former and neglect the latter would be to fail to respect the rights of others who live and work on this campus. Moreover, the restrictions in question are part of a body of policies and regulations that allow the essential work of the University—that of inquiry, teaching, learning and the growth of our students in mind, heart and spirit—to proceed unimpeded. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that happens.

I add, in conclusion, that I hope the current challenging moment stimulates more vigorous study, thought and discussion of the complex moral, social, geopolitical and human realities of the Middle East war. A university’s primary priority should be the contest of ideas, not of disruptive protests; it should be about informed, rational conversations, not chants. President-Elect Fr. Bob Dowd and Provost John McGreevy are committed to facilitating such conversations and dialogues, and I hope faculty, students and staff will join us in distinguishing Notre Dame as a leader in conducting respectful, open and reasoned exchanges.

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President, University of Notre Dame
May 13, 2024

62. Model Village

61. Strategic Hamlet

60. Little Boy

59. Fat Man

58. Enola Gay

57.

56. Axis of evil

“States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.” George W. Bush, January 2002 (speechwriting credit: David Frum)

55. Phoenix program

54. Benevolent Assimilation

Trench at Bud Dajo, Philippines, 1906

53. Tabula rasa

Heidi Levine

52. Make the desert bloom

Heidi Levine

51. A land without a people for a people without a land.

Heidi Levine

50. Collateral Damage

Heidi Levine

49.

“America's involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy. It ended, thirty years later, in failure, witnessed by the entire world. It was begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation. And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through than to admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, made by five American presidents, belonging to both political parties.“ introduction, Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War

48.

47. Operation Just (‘)Cause

46.

“I wanted somehow to save them — send them to school, give them a trade, drain them of the hate that had been filling their heads. And yet the world they were a part of, and the machinery I commanded, more often had me killing them instead.” Barack Obama, A Promised Land

45. White man’s birdin’

44. One Team One Fight

43. Committed to Excellence

42. Navis Expediens Viam

41. Victoria Libertatis Vindex

40. Foreign in a domestic sense

39. Hannibal directive

38. Double tap

37. Pre-existing condition

36. Signature strikes

35.

“But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

34.

33. Hazard Zet Forward

32. He “should have had a more responsible father.” -Robert Gibbs, re Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki

31. He “was no angel.” New York Times, re Michael Brown

30. Enhanced interrogation techniques

29. Tranquilization of Syria and the East: Practical Suggestions in Furtherance of the Establishment of Jewish Colonies in Palestine, the Most Sober and Sensible Remedy for the Miseries of Asiatic Turkey

28. Operation Summer Camps

27. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

26. Vacuum domicilium

25.

24.

23.

22. Trickle down

21.

20.

19.

18. Escalate to de-escalate

17. See the world. Learn a trade. Equal opportunity.

Fritz Eichenberg, engraving

16. Co-pilots

15. Peace process

ARTICLE I.
From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they now pledge their honor to maintain it....

Treaty of Fort Laramie

14.

13. Climate Action

Google falling short of important climate target, cites electricity needs of AI | AP News

12. Operation Prosperity Guardian

11. The Disposition Matrix

10. Willy Peter

8.a. Operation Peter Pan

9. In-country

8. Plus ca change-up

2001

2023

7. TARP: Troubled Asset Relief Program

Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

6. Coalition Provisional Authority

5. Black sites:

James, C. L. R. The Black Jacobins. 2nd ed., Vintage Books, 1989.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. Black Reconstruction in America : an Essay toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. New York :Oxford University Press, 2007

4. Operation Cast Lead