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NEWS & LETTERS, MAY 2003
Voices From the Inside Out
The language of war
by Robert Taliaferro Terminology and phrases are a big part of war. What
family of a military member is not amused when their son or daughter returns
from Boot Camp or one of the military training centers and has a whole new
vocabulary that they can't wait to share. The government, when at war, and the mainstream press,
when reporting war, also like using innocuous sounding words and phrases.
"Collateral damage," for instance, is that quaint phrase used when you
intend to kill five members of a control and command center with a guided
1,000-pound bomb that becomes misguided--as such things will--and falls on the
wrong target, killing 100 civilians, most often non-combatant women, children,
and the aged. As long as we're discussing words and phrases, let's try
some that every American school kid should know: "We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these rights is life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These words, of course, belong to the DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE, that document which long ago became the revolutionary construct to
oppose the tyranny of another George who was bent on world domination, and
exposing his values at the point of a bayonet and the killing power of military
ball ammunition. WORDS OF FREEDOM, LIES OF WAR One wonders, will the current war be able to teach a
young Iraqi child--one who lost a limb when a General Dynamic-propulsed,
Raytheon-guided multi-purpose cruise missile dropped a fragmentary grenade into
his play area and maimed him--the meaning and idealism behind those words? Will
they be recognized by a Palestinian family about to be annihilated by a 105 mm,
smooth-bore, HEAT or SABOT round, U.S.-made, designed to kill top-of-the-line,
Russian-made Main Battle Tanks (MBT)? Words and phrases. Prior to Iraq War II, much was made about weapons of
mass destruction, and one of the saddest displays of intellect ever witnessed in
the history of the English language were the questions, in the words and phrases
game, that weren't asked. Weapons of mass destruction, for instance, are only
relative according to the conditions in which they are used. Prior to September
11, who would have thought a passenger jet was a weapon of mass destruction? If a 2,000-lb. daisy-cutter explodes in an Iraqi village
and kills everyone, then it is a weapon of mass destruction relative to that
village. If a tank or artillery shell kills an innocent Palestinian family, then
that tank shell is a weapon of mass destruction for that family. If a 5.65-mm
NATO, full-metal-jacketed slug pierces the heart of a civilian who got in the
way of a fire-fight, then it is a weapon of mass destruction for that
individual. COMPUTER GAME COLONIALISM We often look at the words and phrases of war as some
casual computer or Nintendo game that we can play (view) on our televisions and
turn off at will. Perhaps if wars were fought as they were 50 years ago, without
the benefit of televised, push-button war-making, those who so avidly support
modern wars of colonization would not think with the computer-game mentality,
that all you have to do is press the reset button, to make it all right again. Someone once wrote that war is nothing more than mass
murder for political gain. If that is the case, then one wonders how much more
Bush family politics will be allowed before the world begins to ask the
questions that are the key to ending such word and phrases games. Questions
like, "What makes Milosevic and Bush any different, if both use the
resources at their command to destroy thousands of lives over a whim?" "How can a country that incarcerates more of its
citizens per capita than any other country in the world; that executes its
citizens as a national policy; and that ignores world condemnation of those
aspects of its culture, define what is morally right for others?" Words and
phrases. When we speak of the masses, and of words and phrases,
all peace-loving peoples should now be coming together and, in a unified voice,
ensure that the winning battle-cry of the Bush II Administration should not be
"four more years," but "one-term wonder," just like his
father before him. And if freedom is to ring on the plains and hills and valleys of Iraq and Palestine, and throughout the world, let it do so without the concussive violence of war. |
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