Benchmark and Timetable

05/27/2007

By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: May 27, 2007


A guidepost to target dates.

"Iraqi Backs ‘Benchmark’ Action” was the Washington Times headline over an article about the recent visit to the U.S. by Barham Salih, the Kurd who is deputy prime minister of Iraq.

What is a benchmark, and how does it differ from a timetable? What’s a guidepost, and how is it different from a yardstick or a target date or a milestone? What is a timeline, and how close is it to a guideline or a deadline? The synonymy of standard-setting needs a road map.

To try this in today’s poisonous atmosphere is to strike a match in a room filled with gasbags. One source I approached for definitions and distinctions castigated me for trivializing the war. Words, however, have connotations that can color, sharpen or diffuse meaning; this can help those drawing lines in the sand find some common ground and beats silent glowering or mutual expostulation.

Take target date. The Department of Defense’s Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines it thus: “The date on which it is desired that an action be accomplished or initiated.” Sounds crisp, but the phrase is colored by desired; Prof. Bruce Fraser at Boston University cautions that “target dates are usually estimates that one ‘expects’ to be ignored, while a timetable locks in the dates, which, if ignored, usually call for an explanation.” That, or a withdrawal of troops from a war zone.

Timetable is the word most of the Democratic Congress prefers in legislation mandating a firm schedule of withdrawal from Iraq, no matter what the future state of the war. Nearly two years ago, Senator Russell Feingold (D.-Wisc.) put forward a “target completion date” — the end of 2006. In November 2005, he moved to the stronger word but with a modifier: “we need a policy in Iraq that includes a flexible timetable for completing our military mission there.” A White House statement called that “an artificial timetable,” while President Bush went further, characterizing it “an artificial deadline.”

Since then, modifiers have mostly been dropped. Deadline is the most final word describing a standard of measuring time; it was coined in the Civil War to denote a line drawn before a prison fence beyond which a prisoner could not venture without being shot. And flexible is no longer an adjective of antiwar choice.

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