The new political cant

davej

The practitioners of geo-political discourse have a vast array of insidious phrases in their arsenal these days:

"Weapons of Mass destruction"
"Collateral Damage"
"Axis of Evil"
"Smoking Gun"
"Material Breach"
"Standing shoulder-to-shoulder"

Can you think of any others ?

davej

DeVore

"UN Resolution"



DeV.

Typedef

Excellent opportunity exists for a group Marketing manager to
develop on customer-centric cost oriented business venture,
thinking out of the box, going forward

Tony Blair for President.

DiscoStu

Irrelevancy.
Unilaterally.

Clintons Cat

Western Civillization

Edit.>>ah well,might as well make a sig of it

shotamoose

Politicians are always trying to put the onus on each other. At the moment, the onus seems to be on Saddam (Jack Straw said that it had 'shifted onto Saddam'), but he's trying hard to get it off him and back onto anyone else. Nobody seems to want the onus, and measuring how much time someone spends under it is a good way of seeing how powerful they are. For example, the onus now seems to be on Iraq to prove they've disarmed, rather than on the UN or US to prove that they have any WMD in the first place.

I wonder what an onus looks like? I like to think it's a bit like a hot potato in the shape of a hat.


Another one is the 'international community', which sometimes seems to be invoked the most by those who ignore it the most. If it even exists in the first place.

regi

I wonder what an onus looks like? I like to think it's a bit like a hot potato in the shape of a hat.

Maybe it should be an Onos?

davej

I see that there's a name for the type of military campaign the US will wage against iraq:

It's called "Shock and Awe"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/24/eveningnews/main537928.shtml

I'm aware of the semantic tautology in calling a spade a spade but it sounds like "bliztkrieg" to me.

I wonder what an onus looks like? I like to think it's a bit like a hot potato in the shape of a hat.

It's all about oil. Mmm I like French Fries.

davej

Talliesin

"Rogue State" and it's cousin "Terrorist State" (note "Terrorist State" does not include the only country convicted of terrorism by the World Court, apparantly they're the good guys).

shotamoose

Got another one...

The 'Failed State', a close relative of the Rogue State and Terrorist State, only one we feel more comfortable about invading. Failed states seem to be rogue states without decent armies. Afghanistan was a failed state before invading, but the authorities are notably silent on what it is now. It's certainly not particularly succesful.

The Corinthian

Imperium.

No. Really. That's a term that quite a few diplomats are using privately at present.

Scary...

davej

So off the top of my head something like:

Because of the violation of the UN Resolution by their refusal to disclose the whereabouts of their weapons of mass destruction, this rogue state and member of the Axis of Evil must be dealt with. While we haven't found any Smoking Gun we have found that they are in Material Breach and we are prepared to act unilaterally or together with a coalition of the willing standing shoulder to shoulder in order to bring about our policy of regime change . We do envisage some collateral damage but this terrorist state must be stopped.


davej

Talliesin

oh yeah, "Regime Change" is a good one.

Why is it that whenever I hear "axis of evil" in my head the tune The Wheels on the Bus starts playing.

Clintons Cat

Originally posted by davej
So off the top of my head something like:

Because of the violation of the UN Resolution by their refusal to disclose the whereabouts of their weapons of mass destruction, this rogue state and member of the Axis of Evil must be dealt with. While we haven't found any Smoking Gun we have found that they are in Material Breach and we are prepared to act unilaterally or together with a coalition of the willing standing shoulder to shoulder in order to bring about our policy of regime change . We do envisage some collateral damage but this terrorist state must be stopped.


davej

Dont forget,
In the name of Democracy,western Civilisation and Freedom Loving People.

Imperium.

No. Really. That's a term that quite a few diplomats are using privately at present.

Scary...

Would that be the same as Pax Americana?

Kell

Now we wouldent want to apportion blame now would we?

Turnip

George Orwell wrote about cliches and dying metaphors in his piece, Politics And The English Language and gave "standing shoulder to shoulder with" as an example. Someone tell Tony.

DiscoStu

I remember seeing this thing posted in after hours a few months ago.

Be George W. Bush's Press Seceratry for the day.
Dubya Speech Maker

ironape

Why is it that whenever I hear "axis of evil" in my head the tune The Wheels on the Bus starts playing.

I hear Darth Vaders theme. Dun dun dun, dun dun-dun, dun dun-dun......

"tax refund adjustment"

Ape

SandraP

Kind of a funny article about what to expect from the state of the union speech in the canadian newspaper, the Globe And Mail.

"Avoid adjectives. Don't say "but"; use "and" instead because it's more appealing to women. Keep your verbs down to one syllable, and write your sentences so they can be uttered in a single breath. Use biblical phrases, and draw sharp moral lines."

Interesting insight into the whole psychology of speech writing.

Typedef

Originally posted by Turnip
George Orwell wrote about cliches and dying metaphors in his piece, Politics And The English Language and gave "standing shoulder to shoulder with" as an example. Someone tell Tony.

*haha.

Yeah that was called newsspeak.

Doubleplusgood.

Specky

I always thought "Axis of Evil" sounded like a bad heavy metal band.

...and whenever anyone says "onus" the little 7 year old in my head s******s and says "anus".

Ruaidhri

ground zero..possibly the most annoying "american" saying.

Talliesin

Yes. It neatly combines jaded myth-making with ignorance of what the term means.

I do like the dry humour that nick-named the cafe in the middle of the pentagon "Ground Zero" during the Cold War though.

Ruaidhri

ohhh and unavoidable.as in this war with iraq is unavoidable.

sixpack's little hat

"moving forward" is another one that bugs me.

Specky

substantive was quite fashionable for a while

sceptre

Originally posted by Specky
substantive was quite fashionable for a while

Oh don't worry - that one will be back around May.