Admiral Michael Mullen Makes an "Impact"

Uh oh. Here we go again. Admiral Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, and an alumnus of this writer's high school, spoke the following to the to members of the foreign press at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, D.C., responding to questions concerning creating stability in Iraq.

"Clearly, the ability (of the United States and others) to impact Iraq's economy...(would be helpful)."

If we allow that Admiral Mullen intended the figurative use of impact: "to influence Iraq's economy in some positive way," he would be speaking, well, figuratively. We should assume literal intentions when discussing such grave subjects as the situation in Iraq. Thus, if he is speaking literally, he would convey that we are literally trying to "pack something (good will? money?) into Iraq. This might make for visual drama of some sort but would certainly be ineffective, even silly.

Otherwise, Mullen used "impact" properly as a noun in a subsequent sentence:

“One of the unexpected outcomes that's had a big impact on security has been this group of some 70,000 concerned local citizens, who have taken back … their towns and their villages and their areas...”

Let us all hope that whatever ingenuous help Iraq receives, it will prove to have an impact.

"Impact" used as a verb means: to physically press firmly on or into something, to pack in. Clearly, nothing physical pressed against the country of Iraq other than the bombs dropped in the beginning of the exercise. A figurative use of impact allows for the "influence of a person or thing upon another person or thing," in ways positive and negative, but the word is most often used as a noun usually in a phrase with either "make" or "have" as: Ending sectarian violence in Iraq will have an impact on creating peace and prosperity.


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