Im not a native speaker, i have a complex English sentence and I don't really understand its meaning. Can anyone explain it for me? this is the sentence:
"The formulation of any withdrawal strategy in Iraq—however labeled—should take into account the likelihood that even as nationalism trumped communism between the Cambodians, Chinese, and Vietnamese during the cold war, it will also be an obstacle to the establishment of any transnational caliphate"
I dont understand what "labeled" here means..and...I cannot find any relevance in the sentence ...help me please!
2006-11-26 01:03:35 · 5 answers · asked by truongduongvn2 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
No matter what cute name you give it, the act of taking troops out of Iraq will make it hard to set up a temporary government there; consider similar situations during the cold war.
2006-11-26 01:16:38 · answer #1 · answered by Lightbringer 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"labeled" is a pretty poor choice of words, IMHO, but means "however categorized" - People tend to talk about Iraqi strategies under certain categories or headings like : Withdraw now, withdraw slowly, build up the troops, etc.
so the writer is saying, "Look, under whatever heading your strategy falls, it must take into account...."
2006-11-26 09:11:03 · answer #2 · answered by happy pilgrim 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not surprised that you don't understand the use of "labelled" (my British Eng. spelling!) as it's not a good use of the word. "To label" also means "to describe" apart from its obvious meaning; but even this is not very good in the context. By the way, for a non-native Eng. speaker, your English is brilliant.
2006-11-26 09:21:31 · answer #3 · answered by JJ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here "however labeled" means "No matter what name is given to" the withdrawal strategy. It means, the withdrawal might not be exactly called "withdrawal", it might be called "retreat" for instance. Still, the author feels, it is withdrawal.
2006-11-26 09:20:31 · answer #4 · answered by ravish2006 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
'however labelled' basically means 'whatever you want to name it'.
I think it is a sarcastic stab at saying that the Iraqi strategy, labelled the 'withdrawal' strategy, can be given whatever 'mission' name you want, but it is still the same strategic plan going ahead under whatever name they give it.
Hope this helps!
2006-11-26 09:23:34 · answer #5 · answered by Sparky5115 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋