Military euphemisms: a fragmentary thesaurus

SummersTimes: Public Policy Analysis from Scott Summers

Boots on the ground: invading force

Combat operations: war

Counterinsurgency: invasion

Detainees: prisoners

Detention facilities: prisons

Enhanced interrogation techniques: torture

Ethnic cleansing: genocide

Extraordinary rendition: kidnapping

Friendly fire: killing fellow soldiers or sailors by mistake

Improvised explosive devices (or, more blandly, IEDs): booby traps

Intervention: invasion

Surgical strikes: bombing (not necessarily precise)

Targeted killings: assassinations

Terminate with extreme prejudice: execute

Theatre: battlefield

Withdrawal: retreat

And then there’s the biggest euphemism of all: the Department of Defense. From the birth of the republic until shortly after World War II, it was known as………..the War Department.

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