[Infowarrior] - Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism

[Richard Forno]

Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6654

by Timothy Lynch

Timothy Lynch is director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal
Justice and coauthor of "Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W.
Bush," (2006).

Five years have passed since the catastrophic terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001. Those attacks ushered in the war on terror. Since some
high-ranking government officials and pundits are now referring to the war
on terror as the "Long War" or "World War III," because its duration is not
clear, now is an appropriate time to take a few steps back and examine the
disturbing new vocabulary that has emerged from this conflict.

One of the central insights of George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four concerned the manipulative use of language, which he called
"newspeak" and "doublethink," and which we now call "doublespeak" and
"Orwellian." Orwell was alarmed by government propaganda and the seemingly
rampant use of euphemisms and halftruths‹ and he conveyed his discomfort
with such tactics to generations of readers by using vivid examples in his
novel. Despite our general awareness of the tactic, government officials
routinely use doublespeak to expand, or at least maintain, their power.

The purpose of this paper is not to criticize any particular policy
initiative. Reasonable people can honestly disagree about what needs to be
done to combat the terrorists who are bent on killing Americans. However, a
conscientious discussion of our policy options must begin with a clear
understanding of what our government is actually doing and what it is really
proposing to do next. The aim here is to enhance the understanding of both
policymakers and the interested lay public by exposing doublespeak.

< - >

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6654