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Fri 7 May, 2004 08:57 pm
Why "part and parcel" can mean "an important part"?
"This is part and parcel of an almost total breakdown of discipline in this administration, an administration that prides itself on discipline," says Milton Bearden, a retired CIA operative.
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Din't get what "heads needing to roll" means. "To roll = to roll one's head side by side = calm down"?
"Before people start talking about . . . heads needing to roll, let's get all the facts out," Powell told AFP. He said he was confident that Rumsfeld could address accusations that he had not been forthcoming about the prisoner abuse or the probe into it.
Part and parcel means that the thing being discussed is an integral part of something else - something bigger.
Here, something (perhaps the abuse of Iraqi prisoners) is seen as being part of and a symptom of a broader breakdown in this government - it is inseparable from this.
"Heads rolling" is a metaphor.
It comes from the beheading of people as a punishment - when the severed head would roll away from the body - and now, generally means, that people will be punished as a result of a discovery that has been made - that people will be held responsible.
Powell is wanting a full investigation before people begin to be blamed and lose their jobs, be charged etc.
"Heads needing to roll" refers to the need for people to be punished. This would be heads rolling after being chopped off (not literally now, but perhaps during the French Revolution it would have been literal.)
"Part and parcel" means that something is an integral aspect or the essential part of something. You can think of this as the part or parcel that refers to or symbolizes the whole. Not exactly the most important part... but something that immediately identifies it.
Oh! Well, Deb's got to this first. Good on ya!
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