Mendacious Obfuscation?

Words matter. I've worked in large bureaucratic organizations all of my adult life, where clear, concise writing is rare. What you usually find is leaden prose designed to obscure the fact the writer is an idiot. (Yes, I know I am. Deal with it.) The other purpose, obscuring the truth.

The current administration wishes to change the vocabulary in a way that would make Orwell proud. Elected as an anti-war candidate, we're not sending seventeen thousand troops into Afghanistan in the Global War on Terror. No, you see, it's not a war at all, merely an Overseas Contingency Plan. Quoting Hayek:

Everything which might cause doubt about the wisdom of the government or create discontent will be kept from the people. The basis of unfavorable comparisons with conditions elsewhere, the knowledge of possible alternatives to the course actually taken, information which might suggest failure on the part of the government to live up to its promises or to take advantage of opportunities to improve conditions -- all will be suppressed...The word "truth" itself ceases to have its old meaning. It describes no longer something to be found, with the individual conscience as the sole arbiter of whether in any particular instance the evidence (or the standing of those proclaiming it) warrants a belief; it becomes something to be laid down by authority, something which has to be believed in the interest of the unity of the organized effort and which may have to be altered as the exigencies of this organized effort require it.

Isn't change wonderful?