How Language Is Deployed as a Weapon of War – Mother Jones

How Language Is Deployed as a Weapon of War

Daniel King writes at Mother Jones​:

"How we talk about war is an early measure of whether we’re drifting to war, and whether we’re on guard against the manufacturing or stretching of reasons for it. It’s a historical constant: Carefully chosen euphemisms and deceptive sentence structures are routinely deployed to drum up public support and pave the way to battle. And it’s still happening.

Take, for example, a widely accepted catchall: 'defense.' Last month, the Defense Department called the assassination in Iran a defensive act after President Trump said he was 'call[ing] for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history” and “eliminat[ing] the Defense sequester.'

"A lot of time and tweets are spent in defense of 'defense,' even when we’re talking about offense.

"'The word "defense" is a euphemism for being prepared to wage war or waging war,' says John Donnelly, senior defense reporter at CQ Roll Call and president of the Military Reporters and Editors Association. '"Defense" includes offense, and that’s a great example of an official euphemism that has just become an accepted term, even though it cloaks the more complicated, harsher reality.' ..."