Terry Jones: The war of the words

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1206691,00.html

One of the chief problems with the current exciting adventure in Iraq is that no one can agree on what to call anyone else. There isn't even any agreement on what to call the Americans. The Iraqis insist on calling them "Americans", which seems, on the face of it, reasonable. The Americans, however, insist on referring to themselves as "coalition forces". This is probably the first time in history that the United States has tried to share its military glory with someone else.

Hollywood, for example, is forever telling us it was the Americans who won the second world war. It was an American who led the break-out from the prison camp Stalag Luft III in The Great Escape; the Americans who captured the Enigma machine in the film U571; and Tom Cruise who single-handedly won the Battle of Britain (in his latest project, The Few).

Then again, the US insists that it has been carrying out "negotiations" with the mojahedin in Falluja. These "negotiations" consist of the US military demanding that the mojahedin hand over all their rocket-propelled grenade launchers, in return for which the US military will not blast the city to kingdom come. Now there's a danger that this all sounds like one side "threatening" the other, rather than "negotiations" - which, after all, usually implies some give and take on both sides. As for the word "ceasefire", it's difficult to know what this signifies anymore. According to reliable witness reports from Falluja, the new American usage makes generous allowance for dropping cluster bombs and flares, and deploying artillery and snipers.

But perhaps the most exciting linguistic development is to be found away from the areas of conflict - in the calm of the Oval Office, where very few people get killed for looking out of their windows. Here words such as "strategy" and "policy" are daily applied to the kneejerk reactions of politicians and military commanders who think that brute force is the only way to resolve difficult problems in a delicate situation. As Major Kevin Collins, one of the officers in charge of the marines in Falluja, put it: "If you choose to pick a fight, we'll finish it."

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. What a proper war is like.

"In the second world war we were fighting the Germans, and the Germans were fighting us. Everyone agreed who was fighting who. That's what a proper war is like."

Jones has got it. In his analysis of the linguistic deficiencies of the Iraq War, he manages to identify the strategic deficiencies as well. The US loses (sorry, doesn't "win") those wars in which people can't agree on who is fighting who. The US can't win wars that are not "proper wars." Simple as that.

[ixion]

2. leave it to jones to point out the extreme absurdity

that others call 'reality'.

Thanks for posting this. great read.

[reprehensor]

3. Bumpin' a good 'un. n/t

[T_i_B]

4. And another one!

:kick:

[Jokerman]

5. A world so absurd only the comedians make sense.

It takes someone like Jon Stewart or Terry Jones to cut through the bullshit.


'In the past, one might have used a phrase such as "numbskull stupidity" rather than "strategy". But then, language has a life of its own ... which is more than one can say for a lot of innocent Iraqis.'