Language Watch
Sometimes you can learn a lot from the words the military uses when it releases news. Announcing the recovery of the body of the last U.S. Navy SEAL who went missing in Afghanistan, the military made the following statement: "The location and disposition of the service member's remains indicate he died while fighting off enemy terrorists on or about June 28."
Not Taliban. Not insurgents. Not rebels. Not militants. Not the enemy.
"Enemy terrorists."
Anyone noticing a pattern here? Methinks they doth protest too much.
The SEAL was killed by a group of fighters holed up in a remote, mountainous area. This was not a bunch that was running around Kabul blowing up civilians with car bombs and IED's. They engaged the U.S. military directly, using standard weapons including RPG's.
Our military wants our support. Is it too much for us to ask in return that---unlike our political leadership, which joined the Church of the Thesaurus long ago---the military maintains at least some semblance of honesty and clarity when releasing information about troops killed in action? Or was nothing learned from the PR fiasco that accompanied Pat Tillman's sacrifice?
Not Taliban. Not insurgents. Not rebels. Not militants. Not the enemy.
"Enemy terrorists."
Anyone noticing a pattern here? Methinks they doth protest too much.
The SEAL was killed by a group of fighters holed up in a remote, mountainous area. This was not a bunch that was running around Kabul blowing up civilians with car bombs and IED's. They engaged the U.S. military directly, using standard weapons including RPG's.
Our military wants our support. Is it too much for us to ask in return that---unlike our political leadership, which joined the Church of the Thesaurus long ago---the military maintains at least some semblance of honesty and clarity when releasing information about troops killed in action? Or was nothing learned from the PR fiasco that accompanied Pat Tillman's sacrifice?
posted by The Cunning Realist at Monday, July 11, 2005
13 Comments:
Speaking about a Language Watch...
What I've been wondering about and have seen commented on in other blogs is the Orwellian term: "War on Terror" -- as in "if we want to win this War on Terror we have to be resolute"...
-- As I read on another blog, how can you successfully wage a war on "terror"? Terror is a tactic of all war... this war will be endless if this is a parameter. And to people such as myself, living in other countries, it just highlights the illegal nature of American agression.
what's the deal with the alleged UK pullout memo leak? Coalition of the Willing?!
this is, of course, exactly what you predicted: that we will never hear a term like "insurgent" again. anyone who is fighting anywhere against a US soldier will from now on be a "terrorist."
yes, TCR did call this one exactly right.
I hope that our military understands our enemy (you don't defeat an enemy if you don't understand it); then, anything they say is just fodder for the various groups to pick over.
What about this Karl Rove BS...
"I didn't know her name or leak her name"; no he just said Wilson's wife.
Or Rove's recent political comparison about 9/11, when the facts are right there for all to see on 9/12. What Bush said after the London bombings would have made Bush a liberal in Rove's eyes.
It is a culture of propaganda, lies, and pay to play in this White House. And I think we can expect no less from them now and in the near future.
Let's forget for one moment that the media has also given this administration a blank check to say and do whatever, without accountability; what's up with the media. They reported only 126 segments on Sudan, but over 8,000 on the "runaway bride", Jackson, and Cruise. Fox Shepard Smith did say the world isn't serious and the news should be fun.
I don't think "truth" is a principle considered important by the media, politicians, and whether we like it or not the military has been politicized, especially by this administration. Any news, speech, conference, is more like herding the masses into the direction they want us to go (heck, even CEO's do it). Granted truth has always been manipulated, but doesn't it seem worse now; like more people are accepting it or more people are lying to meet an end so they benefit.
Did anyone catch 60 Minutes segment... icks!
James asks are there any "terrorist allies?"
I believe Posada Carriles would be a "terrorist ally" would he not?
Just speculating though
This is a war on terror so therefore all eneny are terrorists. Didn't you get the memo? I'm sure Ken Melman or Karl Rove sent you a copy (snark)
I heard two things on the Tonight Show that I had to research. One, Karl Rove may have a girlfriend on the side.
And two, it isn't the war on terrorists anymore. It is: "the global struggle against violent extremism."
So I guess they aren't terrorists anymore, they are now extremists.
I bet you can guess where they got this phrase... I feel another PR campaign, Presidential Propaganda attack coming on again. Move over Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman.
The phrase came after Bush appointed one of his most trusted aides, Karen Hughes (the female version of Karl Rove), to lead the administrations international propaganda and PR campaign.
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