When the US made great efforts to rescue the nineteen-year-old Jessica Lynch, two new acronym words were created: P.O.W (American Prisoner of War) and E.P.W (Enemy Prisoner of War).
(10) Granularity
The granularity of the Iraq War is not the sand that covers most of the country. It stands for the detailed accounts of the battles on the ground in Iraq. But practical problems with communications from soldiers in the fields to their commanders and restrictions from London and Washington on the flow of information mean it will be an endless search.
(11) Neglect
“Neglect” is a euphemism used by the New York Times to avoid talking about the effects of US-backed sanctions. The Washington Post referred in an October 16 report to “the challenges of rebuilding an Iraqi infrastructure severely damaged by decades of neglect under Saddam Hussein and two wars with the US.” A headline in the Los Angeles Times (10/5/03) read, “Insurrection, Decades of Neglect and High Expectations by Iraqis Complicate a Daunting Task.”[22]
No matter it is the American government or media, the bombings are referred as “precision” “smart bombings” and “laser guided”. What is euphemistically known as “friendly fire” or “collateral damage” is a mainstay of the war. George Orwell says “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper or by governmental speech.” [23] His saying is the real reflection of the American government and media in the Iraq War.
5.2 Euphemism in military
In the times of high crisis, the military also is fond of new euphemistic expressions for euphemistic cover and black humor. They clouded simple concepts in layers of terms.
(1) Manoeuvrist approach
“Manoeuvrist approach” is used by the commanders to describe the “flexible tactics, which allow them in the field and at the main headquarters in Qatar to adapt their plans in response to events on the ground.” [24]
(2) Deconflicting the airspace
“Deconflicting the airspace” is unveiled by Lieutenant General David McKierman, the land war commander, to describe the complex process of ensuring that the vast array of weaponry fired into southern Iraq does not collide. “He said that he wanted to make sure that the fires were fully coordinated and deconflicted”. [25]
(3) Kinetic targeting/ soft targeting
“Kinetic targeting” is a euphemism for dropping bombs. “‘Soft targeting’ is used by generals to describe the leaflets which are dropped Iraq to ask the military to surrender and radio stations to broadcast anti-Saddam rhetoric. When fighter jets and cruise missiles destroy targets on the ground, the military calls it ‘kinetic targeting’ ”. [26] When the US and the British troops wait for permission to attack Iraq, the military calls it “going kinetic”.
(4) Fixing
When the US and British forces surrounded the southern towns of Nassiriya and Basra, the military termed that “they are fixing them.” This does not mean they are already repairing buildings damaged in battle. Rather, they just sealed off the perimeters to neutralize any Iraqi troops still inside the town without having to risk engaging them in potentially costly street fighting.
(5) SSEs/ Sensitive site exploitation
General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of coalition forces, coined one of the more memorable military terms of the campaign---SSEs (sensitive site exploitation). This term describe the “delicate process of examining suspected plants containing weapons of mass destruction. Such a technical term will come in handy if the coalition forces fail to detect any weapons of mass destruction, whose alleged presence in Iraq provided the pretext for war.” [27]
(6) Strike package
This is strictly a military term to describe the vast array of hardware and technology supporting the bombing raids. “The ‘strike package’ includes fighters, reconnaissance and early warning radar aircraft, and air- to-air refuellers, a RAF speciality.” [28]
(7) Hot contact point
“Hot contact point” is the latest offering to describe the uncomfortable business of casualties in a low-key way.
“‘A hot contact point is where our soldiers are getting shot at,’ said a British sergeant, manning a checkpoint.”[29]
5.3 The pragmatic reasons for the America’s usage of euphemism in the Iraq War
As for the pragmatic reasons, there are mainly including interestingness, namely to make one’s language interesting and increasing the force of one’s message, namely to enhance the impact or effectiveness of one’s message.
5.3.1 Interestingness
The matter of war is just like the matter of diplomacy. Both of them are usually taken seriously as they generally concern vital issue of one country. So most of the time, language about war and diplomacy usually bears the brand of conservation and formalism. Nevertheless, in the Iraq War, many euphemisms about politics and war are created and employed to achieve specific communication goals: to arouse people’s interests to one’s speech, to make one’s statements more interesting or to use the funny words or expressions to satirize someone or something, etc. These can be showed from the following examples:
(1) The smoking gun/ the mushroom cloud
President George W. Bush made a speech on Iraqi Threat in Cincinnati:
“Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof--- the smoking gun--- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud….” [30]
As we know, the weapons of mass destruction are fatally dangerous to the whole world. In explaining the danger of the nuclear weapons, the US President Bush employs a vivid scene in a rather light tone---the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. With this speech, he gives the hearers a vivid and interesting impression.
(2) Bumper sticker
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Made a Speech on the Future of Iraq
Question: “At last week’s DOD press conference, you stated that you didn’t care for the word ‘insurgent’ and that you had another word for this term ‘insurgents’. What is this other term that you have for insurgents that you said you couldn’t remember at the time?”
Rumsfeld: “I don’t think I said I couldn’t remember at the time. I said I hadn’t thought it through well enough to know that there was a simple ‘bumper sticker’ that one could substitute for the word ‘insurgent’.”[31]
The “bumper sticker” is familiar to people. Depicting the “insurgents” as “bumper stickers”, the speaker obviously derides the insurgents in an obscure manner. It enables hearers to take the interestingness of euphemistic wordings.
(3) Yapping like a rabbit
Gore Vidal, the grand old man of the American literary left, coined one of the more eloquent phrases of the war. “‘How embarrassing for Blair, prime minister of that once great country, to be yapping like a rabbit in support of our war,’ Vidal said to cheering supporters at a rally in Santa Monica.”[32]
“Rabbit Rabbit Yap Yap” is a song of Chas and Dave. As a man of letters, Vidal is not inspired by the song but to deride the Blair, the British prime minister, to follow by the US like a noisy rabbit.
(4) Mouseholing
This apparently simple term has sinister connotations. It describes one of the most horrific elements of urban warfare in which troops do not enter houses from the front door, for fear of triggering trip wires. Instead they blow holes in sidewalls, invariably causing numerous civilian casualties. This wording dressed in such a metaphor makes the expression more symbolic and vivid.
5.3.2 Increasing the force of one’s message
More than to make one’s language interesting, euphemism can be used to increase the force of one’s message. The euphemism creates a gap between the literal meaning and implicit meaning. To understand the message, one has to put a greater investment into that message. This also extensively elaborates the characteristics of euphemism, as the examples illustrate:
(1) Catastrophic success
The US commanders are using “catastrophic success” to talk about sweeping triumphantly into Baghdad. By “catastrophe”, they do not mean a disaster, because they are dismissing the idea of thousands of civilian casualties. Instead they are using a negative adjective “catastrophic” to emphasize the positive, as people describe something that is “cool” as “wicked”.
(2) Blue on blue/ friendly fire
“Blue on blue” made its debut after the downing of an RAF Tornado by an American Patriot missile. This phrase is used to describe the all-too-common tragedy of allied forces being killed by people on their own side. It is a new term to follow from the older one---“friendly fire”
Self-obviously, the one ought not to relate the new phrase with any hints of color. One needs to read between the lines before getting the meaning behind. To connect with the older one--- “friendly fire”, one may deeply perceive the roundabout way of describing the killing done by one’s own side. “Blue on blue” consolidates the regretful mood for the wrongdoing.
5.4 The political and realistic reasons for the America’s usage of euphemism in the Iraq War
Along with two pragmatic reasons for American government, media, and military to use the new euphemisms in the Iraq War, there are more important ones behind them. That is, “Bushism” promotes the use of euphemism to hind something and lie about what they are doing. This completely illustrates the rule that language is in the service of economics and politics.
Compared with any previous administrations, the Bush administration is dressed up in a different color, which determines the unique and new usage of the language especially in the Iraq War.
“The Clinton administration regarded ‘global democratization’, ‘military security’, and ‘economic prosperity’ as the three pillars of its national security strategy. While the Bush administration puts ‘global democratization’ on a par with ‘war on terrorism’ and ‘big power coordination’ as the three prerequisites of its national security strategy.” [33]
In the US National Security Strategy report, the first few lines are straight to the point and read like this: “In the 21st century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will be able to make their own lives better. We will defend the peace by fighting terrorists and tyrants. We will extend the peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent.” [34] For this purpose, the US, casting aside the United Nations and international community, started a war wantonly in Iraq on March 20, 2003. And it put the most prominent feature representative of “Bushism”---“Preemptive Strategy”. Bush asserts that, “the war on terror will not be won on the defensive; if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long…. The best defense to counter terrorist threats is to attack. The US will be prepared to take preemptive strike actions as time requires and discover and destroy those threats before they reach the US borders.” [35]
The implementation of the “preemptive strategy” means that the US will launch attacks without any advance warning against its self-defined enemies and threats at its chosen time. And Iraq is the first proving ground of its “preemptive strategy”. Therefore, the US “took a preemptive action” (war) to mass a large and strong army---“coalition forces” to “shock and awe” (bomb and attack) the “target of opportunity” (a target of Iraqi leadership) and to overthrow the “regime target” (the Saddam Hussein’s regime) so as to “reconstruct a free and democratic government” (a pro-US regime).
How elegantly and beautifully these euphemisms are used to disguise the fact of invasion and occupation of Iraq, the purpose of propping up a pro-US regime and expanding US strategic influence and controlling over the Middle East region; including the control of oil resources.
Therefore, the Bushism’s euphemistic expression “preemptive strategy” does a great deal of damage not only to the peace and development but also to the traditional principles of self-defense, aggravating global violence and instability.
5.5 Euphemism in Saddam Hussein and his officials
Compared with the euphemism used by America as a tool to disguise and beatify their military invasion and economic purposes, the Saddam Hussein and his officials use euphemism in a quite different ways. They use it to expose the America’s evil doings and unfavorable impact on Iraq and international situation, as the following examples illustrate:
(1) Evil ones
Saddam Hussein threw George Bush’s favorite insult back at him. In his second television address since the military campaign began, he branded Mr. Bush and Tony Blair the “evil ones” who are no better than “lowlifes and enemies of humanity”. Such language will be familiar to President Bush, who condemned Osama bin Laden as the “evil one” after the September 11 attacks.”[36]
This euphemism fully conveys Saddam Hussein’s intense condemnation and derision to the President Bush. And the derision in the form of such a euphemism strengthens his insult to Bush.
(2) Swamps
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the pre-Iraqi information minister, declared that Iraq had lured British and American troops into “swamps” (being in trouble in the war), from which they will never return. This had shades of President Bush’s pledge, after the September 11 attacks, to “drain the swamp of terrorism”. [37]
“Swamp” is a vivid expression to show the difficulties and troubles the US met in the Iraq War. Following from the “drain the swamp of terrorism”, it further consolidates the derision of the US’s military action in Iraq.
Reading between the lines, we can find that the US can be successful in Iraq for a while in the near future, but will surely hurt itself by its own doing in the long term. These victories as seen at present, will contribute to the enhancement of US superpower position. However, from a long-term point of view, it will make itself a lonely superpower. At that time, none of euphemisms can be completely disguise and diminish the fact.
6. Conclusion
Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in our daily communication. We use euphemism to mask harsh, rude or unpleasant truths and to avoid offending others. In the politics and war terms, euphemism also lubricates the communication. However, it has been labeled as a hypocritical tool. Governments and military use it primarily for the purposes of defending and rationalizing their actions and for disguising or diminishing their failures or unpopular proposals and policies. Therefore, looking at it from the perspective of linguistics, euphemism is neither inherently good nor bad but depending on who is euphemizing and what is being euphemized. Just as the Fred Sherwood said that “It is not so important to question the advisability of euphemism itself of as to explore the phyche of its employer.”[38]
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