"The Long War"

[Jonathan Lighter]

To me, "tinkering" implies fooling around - for good or ill - with something that already exists. But be that as it may, North isn't claiming that the plane exists - just the "design and specifications."

  I suggest that a proper interpretation of his words is that "I know, or have heard of, at least one, and perhaps two or even more persons associated with the Air Force who have some degree of professional or, it may be, avocational interest, in technology, who have been thinking for more than ten years about what a highly advanced new tanker ideally ought to be like. And they keep changing their minds. I, Oliver North, defense journalist, personally believe that highly advanced new tankers are an absolute necessity [etc.]."

  Now, Jim, doesn't that all sound pretty believable to you ?

  JL





s" <James.Landau at NGC.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Landau, James"
Subject: "The Long War"
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I have never seen this term before, nor do I know how much of a
Washington insider Oliver North currently is.

Buy American
By Oliver North
Friday, January 19, 2007

For more than a decade Air Force wonks have been tinkering with the
design and specifications for a new aerial tanker. The planes are an
absolute necessity for the kinds of worldwide deployments being
conducted in the global war on terror ---- or "The Long War" -- in
Washington's new vernacular.

Quoted from
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/OliverNorth/2007/01/19/buy_american?p
age=3Dfull&comments=3Dtrue
OT: as a chauvinistic Northrop-Grumman employee, let me say that, while
I have not seen anything else North has written and therefore cannot
judge him as a columnist, in this particular column he does not know
what he is talking about.

- Jim Landau
Test Engineer
Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
West Atlantic City NJ 08232 USA

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