I've always wondered about the term quagmire. It sounds, you know, kind of marshy to me. Mire I know is mud. But quag? I googled "definition of quagmire." This is what I found:
Definitions of Quagmire on the Web:* A soft boggy or marshy area that gives way under foot.
* Wet muddy ground
* mire: a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
* A quagmire (from "quake" + "mire") is, literally, shaky, miry ground; as a political term used to describe a foreign military campaign in which there is either no foreseeable possibility of victory or the objectives are unclearly defined, and at the same time no clear exit strategy has been formulated in the absence of victory. The military campaign is likened to a kind of swamp or marsh in which the warring nation is unable to remove itself.
I totally reject the political use to which the word has lately been put, as per the last definition. It reflects sloppy thinking (and defeatism). We must have been mired down plenty in Vietnam, due to the climate. But how can you get bogged down in a desert where the temp is 140 degrees?
You can get stuck in sand, as I did in Florida once when my car had to be winched out. So how about a new term? Sandstuck? Doesn't sound right. Suggestions, anyone?
Article comments
1 - DrPat
No mud is necessary: as a metaphor for a political or military morass, quagmire is brilliant. The problem with a briliant metaphor is that, when it is overused, it becomes a cliché.
2 - Bennett
"no foreseeable possibility of victory or the objectives are unclearly defined, and at the same time no clear exit strategy has been formulated in the absence of victory"
No, that doesn't fit, does it?
3 - BillB
How about an "oasis-mire". Stuck in the "everythings going according to the plan!" mindset.
We got water and sand. It seems they're often talking about things that only they see. And as they think they're getting closer it seems to disappear.
4 - DrPat
No, no, NO-o-oh! Please, let's not get started down that path - the only thing worse than a cliché is a trite, overused suffix, as when everything remotely scandalous must be designated as "something-gate."
5 - Shark
How 'bout the term "Raq'?
Like:
"I got stuck in a Raq."
Rolls right off the tongue!
6 - Bennett
'Raq-Gate'
'Mirage-mire'
Yeah, I like that one! Kinda infers several things at once.
7 - BillB
>'Mirage-mire'<
Yea! That's what I meant. Confused my desert factoids. An oasis is real. Wouldn't want to be sending the wrong message now would I.
To the good Doctor, sorry but I'm thinking and I just ain't comin up with something original that's clever. Oh well. Anyway sometimes leaning somewhat on the established is was makes it clever. Color me trite.
8 - miriam
Mirage-mire rules!
9 - RealCon
A quagmire by any other name is still a quagmire...
10 - RealCon
And yes -- we are in one...
11 - Shark
And the "media" is in a "Cog-Mire"
12 - John Bambenek
I kinda liked how the left started chirping in sync when we were invading Iraq and a sandstorm erupted. About 3 days later we captured Baghdad.
Quagmire indeed.
13 - Bennett
John, That was then, and this is now.
And when exactly did we 'capture' Bagdad? And by capture, do you mean control of 1%, with looting and anarchy for the remaining area?
Just checking in. Chirping along.
14 - miriam
I think sandstorm is the best suggestion yet.
15 - RealCon
How about "scirocco" --
A hot humid wind -- originating in the Sahara Desert as a dry dusty wind but becoming moist as it passes over the Mediterranean… a windstorm that lifts up clouds of dust or sand, e.g. -- "a kind of duster not experienced in years"
Yup -- that’s about it…haven’t seen a "duster" like it since ‘Nam…
16 - miriam
Scirocco sounds very glamorous. Wasn't there a movie of that name? How is it pronounced?
17 - Amanda C.
I have some insight, as to how I could see this working.
I played the online game Ragnarok Online. There is a spell on that game that is called Quagmire. When it is cast on the ground it makes you move very slow and you lose mental power.
The quagmire therefore in this sense could be extremely well-placed in the situation.
The war in the middle east right now is exactly that, we're moving slow and our countries brain isn't working at full capacity.