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Sunday, April 17th, 2016

What’s the Meaning of Failure? A Dictionary of Euphemisms for Imperial Decline

Author:     William J. Astore
Source:     truthout
Publication Date:     Thursday, 14 April 2016 00:00
Link: What’s the Meaning of Failure? A Dictionary of Euphemisms for Imperial Decline
Stephan:   America has created an age of endless war; there will be people voting in this election who have never known the United States when it was not at war. It is very profitable and has been going on so long it is now the societal norm.  And as that has happened something very strange has happened to our language. Descriptions of the killing, murder, bombing, the deaths and maiming of tens of millions of people have been slathered like smearing makeup on a corpse with euphemisms.  Here is an excellent example of this immoral and shameful trend.
Credit: Sergio Vassio

Credit: Sergio Vassio

The dishonesty of words illustrates the dishonesty of America’s wars.

Since 9/11, can there be any doubt that the public has become numb to the euphemisms that regularly accompany US troops, drones, and CIA operatives into Washington’s imperial conflicts across the Greater Middle East and Africa? Such euphemisms are meant to take the sting out of America’s wars back home. Many of these words and phrases are already so well known and well worn that no one thinks twice about them anymore.

Here are just a few: collateral damage for killed and wounded civilians (a term used regularly since the First Gulf War of 1990-1991). Enhanced interrogation techniques for torture, a term adopted with vigor by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of their administration (“techniques” that were actually demonstrated in the White House). Extraordinary rendition for CIA kidnappings of terror suspects off global streets or from remote badlands, often followed by the employment of enhanced interrogation techniques at US […]

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