"Abroad, our most important policy is to support our troops and continue forward-thinking foreign policy in the war on terror - keeping our enemies on the run and hitting them before they hit us"
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"Support our troops" is the honey on the spoon; "hit them before they hit us" is the medicine. Bond’s line is built to make a contested foreign policy feel like a moral reflex. It pairs an unassailable sentiment (care for service members) with an elastic strategic doctrine (preemption) so that questioning the latter can be framed as undermining the former. That’s not a slip of rhetoric; it’s the point.
The phrase "forward-thinking foreign policy" is doing quiet, heavyweight work. It casts the war on terror not as reactive or indefinite, but as modern, savvy, and future-oriented - a branding move that tries to launder uncertainty into confidence. "Keeping our enemies on the run" turns geopolitics into a chase scene: we’re the protagonists, motion equals advantage, and stopping looks like surrender. The enemy remains conveniently abstract. No geography, no timelines, no political tradeoffs; just "them" and "us", a binary that thrives on fear and simplifies accountability.
Context matters: a post-9/11 political language ecosystem where toughness became a domestic credential and preemptive action was sold as common sense. The subtext is electoral as much as strategic: stability at home is promised through aggression abroad, and dissent is subtly disqualified as naive. Bond’s sentence doesn’t argue policy details; it manufactures consent by fusing patriotism, urgency, and a permanently renewable threat.
The phrase "forward-thinking foreign policy" is doing quiet, heavyweight work. It casts the war on terror not as reactive or indefinite, but as modern, savvy, and future-oriented - a branding move that tries to launder uncertainty into confidence. "Keeping our enemies on the run" turns geopolitics into a chase scene: we’re the protagonists, motion equals advantage, and stopping looks like surrender. The enemy remains conveniently abstract. No geography, no timelines, no political tradeoffs; just "them" and "us", a binary that thrives on fear and simplifies accountability.
Context matters: a post-9/11 political language ecosystem where toughness became a domestic credential and preemptive action was sold as common sense. The subtext is electoral as much as strategic: stability at home is promised through aggression abroad, and dissent is subtly disqualified as naive. Bond’s sentence doesn’t argue policy details; it manufactures consent by fusing patriotism, urgency, and a permanently renewable threat.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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