Dictionary definition of “self-licking ice cream cone”

self-licking ice cream cone

n. a process, department, institution, or other thing that offers few benefits and exists primarily to justify or perpetuate its own existence. Also in the form self-licking lollipop. Subjects: English, Government, Military, Politics, Slang

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Citations: 1992 Tim Weiner Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania) (Mar. 23) “Critics Call Star Wars A Contractors’ Feast” p. A01: SDI has become “a self-licking ice cream cone. It serves no purpose except to consume itself.” 1992 Marvin Ott Wall Street Journal (Dec. 23) “Reform Task for Woolsey at the CIA” p. A8: Analysts are concerned not with a policy audience, but with the readership among their peers in the intelligence community and with fulfilling their quota of reports and assessments. Despite an elaborate “requirements” process, most of the topics that analysts address are selected by the DI itself. It is the proverbial “self-licking ice cream cone.” 1993 Barton Gellman San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Oct. 8) “Deadline Squeezes Somalia Mission” p. A18: For grateful military leaders, there was merit in reinforcement for its own sake. One senior general compared the existing force to a “self-licking ice cream cone”—so small and weak that it consumed most of its resources in the effort to supply and defend itself. 2000 Stephen W. Magnan @ Center for the Study of Intelligence Studies In Intelligence (Washington, D.C.) (Summer) “Safeguarding Information Operations” no. 9,: By repeating Red Team victories from one Unified Command or agency to another without trying to fix the problem(s) creates a “self-licking ice cream cone” for the IO community, that is, an ensured mission and fund site for the foreseeable future. 2001 Williamson Murray Army Transformation: A View From The U.S. Army War College (July): This is the “self-licking ice cream cone” approach to analyzing results of experiments or exercises: decide what result you want to achieve and then build an event to meet success. This approach, however, does not provide the Army with an accurate assessment of the hypothesis being tested and is therefore flawed. 2003 Stephen B. Wickman @ National War College The Emotional Base Of America’s Military-Industrial Complex (Washington, D.C.) (Apr. 24) p. 2: The “self-licking ice cream cone” that is the Congress of the United States prevents the closure of redundant factories and is satisfied by minor reforms, such as procuring a few items “off the shelf.” 2003 Tim McElligott Wireless Review (Oct. 1) “Tom Goodman VP, Bluefire Security Technologies” vol. 20, no. 9, p. 16: Goodman admits the private sector security industry can be a bit of a self-licking lollipop—the more vulnerabilities, the better—but not for everyone. 2005 Alaska State Legislature Senate State Affairs Standing Committee (Mar. 31) p. 14: CHAIR THERRIAULT said the account has been characterized as a self-licking ice cream cone in that no one gets to derive pleasure from it. The proposed mechanism is the only way for the state to derive benefit. The underlying question is do we have to continue to allow it to self-lick? 2006 Ray McGovern Counterpunch (Nov. 14) “Why the Iraq Study Group Won’t Get Us Out of Iraq”: However disappointing Colin Powell’s knee-jerk saluting of the commander-in-chief, at least Powell had been around and knew something of the world. (Rumsfeld, of course, is good riddance.) But what you now have around the president is what we call, in intelligence parlance, a self-licking ice-cream cone.

Posted 16 Nov 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

There’s a reference to this term in Richard Clarke’s book Against All Enemies. Right after the 9/11 attacks, Clarke and another staffer were walking between buildings at the White House: the other one said to Clarke “there’s your self-licking ice-cream cone” (in this case he meant ‘now that these attacks have happened, we’ll finally get some attention on bin Laden, al Qaeda, etc. In other words, our relevance is more than obvious now.’ Note the slightly different use than those cites above.)

by Ringo (Robert Geroux) 25 Dec 06, 0633 GMT