Why We Worry

The Bush administration has been shameless when it comes to naming their programs and policies. The PATRIOT Act destroys civil liberties, the Clear Skies Initiative reduces air pollution controls, Operation Iraqi Freedom put Iraqis under US military control, etc.

We’ve long needed a guide to these insults to language and logic, and Spencer Ackerman’s Iraq Euphemism Glossary is a great start.

Here’s my favorite:

CONCERNED LOCAL CITIZENS

Let’s say you had a bunch of insurgent fighters who 20 minutes ago were shooting at American soldiers and marines. Let’s also say that through a combination of strategic calculation (they really didn’t see much of a future for themselves under the foreign domination of anti-tobacco nazis like al-Qaeda in Iraq), inducement (lots of cash from U.S. commanders who’d rather not be shot at and blown up), and opportunities both present and future (today: becoming the neighborhood warlord; tomorrow: overthrowing the Shiite government!) they decide to stop shooting at the Americans.

You can call these guys a lot of things: well-motivated warlords; rational decision makers; allies of convenience. What you really shouldn’t call them is “Concerned Local Citizens,” a term that equates ferocious nationalist/sectarian killers with busybody retirees who hold bake sales to fund smoothing down the gravel at the playground before someone skins a knee.

If you get a chance, you should really read the whole thing. Because as Ackerman says, ” if you can’t talk openly about what the war is - and what the set strategy for it entails - you engage in a self-deception that ensures nothing but continued catastrophe.”

Flickr photo @ soldiersmediacenter