Sorry, no sale. Scarcely? Your one sized perspective does not fit all situations. Anyway, language is at best an imperfect instrument, one under constant construction and reconstruction.. Inherent ambiguity actually serves politician's interests very well, as opposed to less ambiguous "statesmen's" generally more careful crafts..

Example, I find plain talk from John McCain to be statesmanlike, and I also don't expect him or Gen. Petraeus to reveal their strategic or tactical moves in advance to the wolf packs ni-pping at their heels.

To talk plainly but stupidly is no virtue, such as publicly laying out the timetable for retreat and possible defeat/frustration of fairly noble-intending objectives.

What DWA may really be trying to "say":

To have/see the huge oil revenues of Iraq again directed to nefarious WMD purposes is not a pretty thought. Doing something about Iraq on the warpaths was something "we" could do something about, as opposed to tackling either Josef Stalin or Chairman Mao.