The Surge, success though it has been, is too limited as a slogan. It can accommodate only four to seven additional years of continued war. Maybe another 6,000 American dead. Less than a trillion dollars more can be spent. It might as well be called The Spurt.

America needs a turn of phrase with vision. And our President, in his final State of the Union speech, delivered.

Just when we feared he would leave office with absolutely no accomplishments, Mr. Bush has given the quest for security on this planet a handle: The Protective Overwatch Mission.

The Protective Overwatch Mission means simply “the rationalization for war without end.” And as cynical as that sounds, America will have no place at the table — chopsticks will not even be set out — once it is no longer capable of dishing out wholesale misery. Planetary happiness hinges on American hegemony.

Seldom do Presidents come up with lines like The Protective Overwatch Mission. They have speech-writers. But the submissions by his staff have been lacking — either too subtle, too moronic, or not subtle or moronic enough: i.e., Liberty Enchantment Journey, Pan Hebrao-Islamic Christ-on-top Pyramid, and World Cops Marching in Lock Step.

By Sunday, the day before the speech, a slogan had not been settled on. Then, according to Karen Hughes, the President asked himself — “what is it I am trying to do when I ask the phone companies to provide me with information regarding the possibly unreliable American Citizen? Am I spying? No, that doesn’t sound right. Am I mussing with that individual’s God-given rights? I sure as hell hope not. Nope, what I’m doing is I’m overwatching. Overwatching is like overseeing without that whip-handling, slaves-on-the-plantation overmeaning — see what I’m gettin’ at?”

The word “Overwatch” arching over Protective and Mission, is the keystone. Yes, it’s another George W. coinage. One that sounds utterly idiotic until you think about it. But you would not think about it if the press corps didn’t repeat it with the dazed admiration accorded to savants — the brain-damaged farmworker who weaves images of celebrities from colored straw, the two year old who plays jazz piano with her forehead, the centenarian who still drinks twenty cokes a day.

The Protective Overwatch Mission — the phrase, in its entirety — was worked out in committee only hours before the address. It’s an idiom that makes the President happy. The kind of saying that Connecticut boys who learn to speak Texan in their twenties like to use.

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. Get out of this town by sundown. Get out of the Oval Office and stay out, shithead.

Straight talking, simple language. Guy stuff.