What a load of irony

I'm just as shocked as the rest of you at President Bush's use of language. As many know by now, an open microphone at the Group of 8 meeting caught the president in some unscripted and blunt talk. He was heard saying this to British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

"See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

Can you believe that? Is it possible that the president of the United States, who should be setting an example for us all, would completely misuse the term "ironic" in that way? "Irony" usually involves language and, by most definitions, has two layers of meaning. There is a difference between what one says and what one really means, or between what a character in a play or novel believes and what the audience or reader really knows. There are, of course, situational ironies, in which what happens is not what was expected or deemed appropriate (a fire station burning down is the usual example).

But even if you accept the expanded definitions of irony based on all the intellectual discussions of the Alanis Morissette song (and there are more than you might think), in which the word is used merely to describe funny coincidences or "life sucks" moments, there is no conceivable way that getting Syria to take care of Hezbollah is "ironic."

"Ironic," to cite just one example, would be the president signing a bill making "exceeding the bounds of decency" over the public airwaves punishable by $325,500 instead of $32,500, then himself uttering a word that would get a broadcaster fined for airing it.