03 January 2007

What's in a word?

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has referred to the deaths of American service men and women in Iraq as an "investment" that was worth the price. The White House referred to the death of the 3,000 American in Iraq in terms of "sacrifice".

I can think of more appropriate words to use in reference to the deaths of the soldiers from America and elsewhere, of the journalists, of the tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis in this disaster of a war. I think of words like "tragedy" and "disgrace". Mr. Bush, your speechwriters should get out of the safety of the White House every so often and perhaps go out into the American street instead of digging their collective proboscides deep into the oval office Roget's. Even better, they could get on a plane and fly to Baghdad, carefully avoiding the green zone, and speak to ordinary Iraqis. Perhaps then they would have the means, if not necessarily the courage, to choose the right words.

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