A bit of purple prose from the pages of The New York Times:
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Oct. 22 - Mongolia has 131 soldiers in Iraq, and on Saturday it received an official American statement of gratitude from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Mr. Rumsfeld came to Ulan Bator to deliver that message personally, and he was given a horse.
In dazzling sunlight on the grounds of the Mongolian Defense Ministry, Mr. Rumsfeld took the reins of the calm gelding and said, “I am proud to be the owner of that proud animal.” He immediately announced that he would name the horse Montana, because the dusty plains and mountains that ring the Mongolian capital reminded him of that Rocky Mountain state.
The entire exchange recalled an ancient era of alliance and conquest, when a warrior’s word was law and the long knives were carried in the open.
The horse, a rich latte hue with a mane and tail the color of dark-roast coffee, was described by local officials as a traditional domesticated Mongolian breed.
Mr. Rumsfeld owns a ranch in New Mexico, where the high plains and sharp peaks would offer pleasant life to an expatriate horse, even one descended from the sturdy steeds that carried Genghis Khan and his successors across the steppes and the Gobi Desert to conquer most of Asia in the 13th century.
Whoa, indeed.
I don’t quite know what we’re supposed to make of this story — I think it’s meant to be a breezy political diary, but it comes off as an awkward attempt to romanticize Rumsfeld (not to mention those dusty plains or sharp peaks). I read it two or three times, scouring the article closely for signs of irony or sarcasm; I could find none.
Among the stylistic affronts, I spy a grammatical one: I believe that this article claims that Rumsfeld’s new horse is a hue. A rich latte hue, to be sure, with undernotes of dark-roast coffee, but a hue nonetheless.
Of course, we shouldn’t be too hard on the writer here — look at the quotes he had to work with:
– Donald H. Rumsfeld
And I am ashamed to be governed by this shameful government.
One Comment on "The Proud Warrior Upon His Sturdy Steed"
Night Bird:
I know a REAl proud warrior….Fred at Making Conservatives Cringe has a good piece on the silencing of the soldiers who speak out against Iraq.
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