speaking in tongues

Rather than practicing real diplomacy—calling for an end to the violence while negotiating, exchanging ideas, and, you know, talking—is it possible that Secretary of State Rice is actually speaking in code to her husband’s boss’s radical base?

What we're seeing here, in a sense, are the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do, we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.

Inspired by some talk over at FDL, Digby did a little digging and discovered that “birth pangs” is fundamentalist Christian code for the beginnings of Armageddon.

Yeah, I went “no way” at first, too, but check out the full derivation/deduction over at Hullabaloo.

Digby then concludes:

Aside from the unbelievable arrogance of that statement, which is virtually designed to piss off just about everyone in the region, this "birth-pang" characterization struck me a bizarre when I heard it. It seemed like an odd image to evoke under the circumstances and I didn't quite understand what she was referring to since the "democracy baby" she and her unofficial husband call Iraq is dying a violent death before it is even born.

Now I get it. Members of the Bush administration have been speaking in code to the Christian fundamentalists for years. In fact, they've been praised for their innovation by the mainstream press. From "culture of life" to "Dred Scott" to "wonder working power" the administration is often talking above the mainstream discourse directly to its Christian Right base.

The only explanations for employing such language at a time like this are that the Secretary of State of the United States is a flipped out fundamentalist herself --- or Karl Rove is deeply involved in the diplomatic language Rice is employing in order to stimulate their base. I lean toward the second (Karl's legacy depends upon his holding the congress this fall) but I wouldn't rule out the first.

Either way, it's unbelievably inappropriate for the top diplomat of the US to be using coded Christian fundamentalist language to discuss this, of all topics. What is wrong with these people?

What’s wrong? Well, nothing if you care more about protecting your domestic political advantage than you do about protecting human lives.