Language always one of war's first casualties

From 'Iraqnophobia' to 'psy-ops' Me
DAVID OLIVE

War debases language, as George Orwell noted after his stint at the British Broadcasting Corp. in World War II.

As the U.S.-led attack on Iraq began last week, it was soon apparent, as in past wars, the print pundits, TV anchors and correspondents in the field were all speaking the same lingo, spoon-fed to them by the Pentagon.

That's how this war's most memorable piece of cant was rapidly downsized, from "a war strategy the Pentagon describes as `shock and awe,'" to "so-called `shock and awe,'" and then simply "shock and awe."

That Pentagon formulation, intended both to weaken Iraqi military resistance and assure the home audience of imminent U.S. triumph, soon came naturally to the likes of CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He used it about 20 times an hour Friday morning, as hundreds of "smart," "precision-guided," 1,000-kilogram "penetration weapons" turned selected neighbourhoods of Baghdad into what reporters dared not describe as charnel houses if they cared to retain their "embedded" status with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Here's a look at some of this war's rhetorical flourishes:

Capitulators, n. The poorly trained, poorly paid front-line Iraqi soldiers the Pentagon is counting on to surrender early in the conflict. "It is also hoped that many (Iraqi soldiers) will become capitulators," Associated Press reporter Denis Gray wrote on March 17, "a newly coined category for troops and units who surrender before any confrontation with U.S. forces."

Coalition forces, n. U.S. forces. Yes, there are some non-Americans among the more than 250,000 soldiers in the Iraq campaign — 200 Poles, 150 Norwegians and 70 Albanians, for instance. But most of the advertised 48 members of America's "coalition of the willing" did not contribute military personnel.

In its bid to depict the Iraq campaign as a multinational effort, the U.S. defence department, whenever it can, will cite the combat participation of an ally. Hence Friday's official Pentagon report that in capturing the Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, "Royal Navy ships, including the frigates HMS Chatham and HMS Marlborough, provided naval gunfire support to (the U.S.) 3 Commando Brigade."

Otherwise, substitute "U.S." for references to "coalition troops," "coalition ships," and "coalition operations."

Decapitation strike, n. The silver-bullet military strategy of eradicating a regime's leadership. Since the 1970s, when the Ford administration gave in to pressure from the U.S. Congress to officially ban attempts to assassinate heads of state, the C.I.A. has been rather less successful than the Sopranos in unofficial attempts to whack Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Panamanian "strongman" Manuel Noriega (eventually captured alive), and Iraq's Saddam Hussein on several occasions in the 1990s.

In the early 1990s, Dick Cheney, then U.S. defence secretary, fired Michael J. Dugan, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, for acknowledging to reporters that the Pentagon sought to "decapitate" the regime in Baghdad by killing Saddam and his family. "We never talk about the targeting of specific individuals who are officials of other governments," Cheney explained.

All bets are off in wartime, however, said vice-president Cheney's government last week after its "surgical strike" at one of Saddam's palatial lairs.

Embed, n. A war correspondent tagging along with a combat unit, who is said to be "embedded" (a Pentagon term) or "in bed with the Pentagon" (the journalism-school definition).

For all that their dispatches are carefully vetted, embeds are not entirely without journalistic value.

"Keep an eye on Ted Koppel, who is embedded with the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division," wrote Slate military analyst Fred Kaplan last Thursday. "If you don't see Koppel for a couple of days after the bombing begins," it means his unit has started its march on Baghdad and "the ground war will likely have already begun."

And if Koppel's not safely back in the Nightline studio in a couple of weeks, Saddam's "ring of fire" around Baghdad augurs another siege of Stalingrad.

Human intelligence, n. Spies and other infiltrators behind enemy lines, very useful in last year's Afghan conflict in directing missile strikes at targets they had identified. As distinct from knowledge about the enemy garnered from satellites, drones and other forms of mechanical surveillance.

Iraqnophobia, n. Fear of Iraq, especially its weapons of mass destruction. Wordspy, the online jargon watchdog, records this early use last year of the term by writer John Roberts of the Nashville Tennessean in an article titled, "Bush's War Talk Hides Economic Woes."

Roberts wrote: "Now that September is here, President Bush can launch his `initial public offering' of stock in his newest product, Iraqnophobia."

One-bullet regime, n. A government based on a cult of personality. "So if (Saddam) were removed from the scene," military analyst Gwynne Dyer told the CBC Friday, "frankly, the war would essentially be over. You'd find some other general with a big black moustache making peace before you knew it."

Reality check: The Communist regimes of China and Vietnam have long survived the passing of Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, respectively, and the Soviet Union outlived Joseph Stalin by almost 40 years.

Psy-ops, n. Non-combat psychological operations for sapping enemy strength, including the leaflet drops over Iraq that began a few weeks ago ("Surrender or die"), and last week's Pentagon hyping of mass surrender by Iraqi units and speculation about whether in fact Saddam had been surgically stricken.

Shock and awe, n. A swift, overwhelming attack that confuses and demoralizes the enemy into rapid submission, a coinage inspired by the Blitzkrieg strategy by which the Nazis quickly captured France and the Low Countries in 1940.

Target of opportunity, n. A promising deviation from the battle plan, as in the curtain-raising event of the war last Wednesday — a "coalition strike" on the Baghdad redoubt where Saddam Hussein was thought to be huddling with his top commanders (a "senior leadership target of opportunity").

Tick-tock, n. Purposeful inattention to detail. After rebuffing reporters' questions last Thursday about matters of which he professed to have no knowledge, Rumsfeld snapped, "You know, I'm not into the tick-tock of every hour and every minute."

Weapons of mass terror, n. A propagandistic improvement over "weapons of mass destruction." Lately, too many experts have pointed out that only nukes are capable of widespread property damage, and there's scant evidence of an Iraqi nuclear capability.

So to invest Saddam's suspected arsenal of chemical and biological weapons with the same scare value as nukes, Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. deputy defence secretary, thought it best earlier this month to offer a more accurate definition. He said, "These so-called weapons of mass destruction might better be called `weapons of mass terror.'"

White-list, v. To confer most-favoured nation status on friends of the United States. In an essay last week, Pentagon superhawk Richard Perle said, "Let us not forget who was for this war and who was not."