Some six decades ago my journalism professors pounded me and my classmates with the idea that a good news person must always use the right word for the situation. With this in mind, I am continually dismayed and embarrassed that present day media almost universally use the word war when referring to the situation in Iraq.
Indulge my explanation that along with my status as a practicing journalist, I was educated and functioned as a professional etymologist. Now I am also a retired navy officer and a historian. In all these capacities, I studied warfare, not just wars as listed and maybe elaborated in the books from which most historians teach and students learn. The difference is that warfare deals with the causes, including those in the human psyche, the propensities of society from the most basic family and extended-family groups to the most complex toward war, the repercussions and recovery procedures of war.
The situation in Iraq IS NOT, and NEVER HAS BEEN, a war. It began as an assault, morphed quickly into an invasion and within a matter of no more than a few weeks became an occupation, its status to this day. None of these terms has the political or romantic appeal of the more glamorous, seemingly more important and urgent, term ‘war.’
For one thing, as part of the definition, occupations are initiated and can be terminated unilaterally. During WW II, for example, the German invasion of Poland did not begin to be referred to as a prelude to war at least until the evacuation of Dunkirk and not as a WW II battle until well after the war ended.
Politicians and other advocates seeking justification and funding naturally will label their handiwork in the most glamorous and easily sold term they can. I also had pounded into me by my journalism profs that a function of media is to keep politicians and advocates honest by keeping readers (voters) informed accurately.
2 comments:
Not only journalists but everybody needs to "define your terms" as they used to say a few decades ago. Maybe some arguers overused that catch phrase but it's still a darn good idea.
We definitely must take back the languaage. As long as neocons define the language of the issues, they will continue to win elections and shred the Constitution - pretty much destroying what America stands for.
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