Our flexible language
For the nine hundred and seventy-third time today, I heard a reporter state that the Republican Guard divisions south of Baghdad have been "degraded to half their fighting capability". I want to know what that means. Does it mean the US has blown up half of their tanks? Destroyed half of their artillery? Killed half of their soldiers? I know they’re used by the military and their political masters because they obscure meaning, but I wish reporters would dig a little deeper to tell us what these annoying military euphemisms specifically mean rather than just acting as court stenographers.
Posted at 6:31 PM
I think "degraded to half their fighting capability" might mean that all of the soldiers are alive but working at 50% efficiency. Of course, they might have suffered "arbitrary deprivation of life" during "violence processing." I just hope we can achieve "governmental unconsolidation" soon so that Iraqis will be able to live in "permanent prehostility."
Posted by lilbro at 10:06 AM, April 2, 2003 [Link]