A Non-declaration of Peace

Our approach is both pro-peace and anti-drug.
President Clinton

So uttered Mr. Clinton in his "video address" to the Columbian people. While the speech as a whole provides plenty of fodder for a class on analyzing distortion and deceit, this particular phrase struck me as an especially blatant Orwellian slogan. No need to tear the rest of the speech apart; no need to examine the details of "Plan Columbia"; no need to delve into the history of the U.S. "anti-drug partnership" with Columbia and other South American countries; from this little sentence we can extract truth from the twisted phrases.

What is it to be anti-drug?

In the US, for over 20 years (really, for over 80), to be against drugs is to be for the War on Drugs. If you are against the War on Drugs, you are for drugs, period. No alternative permitted. Indeed, rarely can one avoid the phrase "War on Drugs". Even opponents must say things like "The War on Drugs is failing, or has failed."

What is it to be pro-peace?

If Clinton's slogan is to make sense, it must be possible to be pro-peace while being anti-drug. Thus, one must be able to be pro-peace while being pro-War-on-Drugs.

That is, one must be able to be pro-peace and pro-War.

WAR IS PEACE
George Orwell, 1984

In the US, "peace" is equated with the US winning absolutely, or dominating absolutely, or devastating the other side absolutely and absolutely forgetting about it. To be "pro-peace" is to be "pro-US", and, of course, to be "pro-US" one must be "anti-drug". So, in the end, to say that the US "approach" is "pro-peace and anti-drug" is to say no more than it is the "US approach".

For those who have experienced the US approach for decades, these are frightening words.

That so many in the US do not immediately object to this flagrant display of Newspeak is a disgrace.