BBC Encyclopedia's Words of War The words used during war can have special significance - who can forget the classic "collateral damage" from the first Gulf War? E-cyclopedia will be keeping an eye out for the words being used in this conflict, and what they actually mean. Send your suggestions too, using the form at the bottom of the page. ENCYCLOPEDIA E-cyclopedia is BBC News Online's guide to words behind the headlines • attitude lobotomy - what, according to New York Times writer Thomas L Friedman, the US administration needs. "It needs to get off its high horse and start engaging people on the World Street, listening to what's bothering them, and also telling them what's bothering us." • axis of weasel - France, Russia, Germany and China, according to US tabloids. The New York Post depicted French and German delegates to the UN as weasels, somewhat like the Sun depicted President Chirac as a worm. "Axis of weasel" was coined by weblog ScrappleFace.com. In UK English, "weasel" means treacherous, but in US English it has the slightly less damning meaning of using ambiguity to conceal truth. • big lie - allegations that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, according to Saddam Hussein, alternatively translated as "great lie". Perhaps an attempt to match his "mother of all battles" soundbite from '91. • called an audible at the line of scrimmage - reported phrase by Gen Tommy Franks, allegedly said when ordering a surgical strike to decapitate Saddam Hussein. Irked some commentators for overtly being a sports phrase. One said: "The militarising of sports terms makes me vaguely uncomfortable. The practice tends to trivialize war and place too much importance on sports." • catastrophic success - a bad case scenario, identified by the Financial Times. "US troops saunter into Baghdad, opposed only pathetically by poorly equipped Iraqi forces. Then, in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, the supposed existence of which has provided the main public justification for war, they find nothing but a few rusty canisters of chemicals. The name for this outcome: Catastrophic Success." • cheese-eating surrender monkeys - a stock epithet for the French in certain US circles. Derives from a Simpsons episode in which Groundskeeper Willie was substitute French teacher for the day. The Times reported that France had responded with "an arch shrug, adopting a tone of superiority precisely calculated to send the Americans into even blacker fury". • coalition of the willing - the White House phrase for the countries militarily involved. US Secretary of State Colin Powell says there are 45
countries taking part in some way, although 15 of them are not prepared to be named. The phrase supplies an echo of the 1991 coalition. • decisive precision shocks - alternative phrase for bomb, according to General Tommy Franks. Reference to doctrine of shock and awe. • effects-based targeting - a term, initially used by British commanders, characterised by pinpoint rather than blanket bombing - the effect being to strike only military targets. "Put simply," suggests reader AF, UK, "it means 'why use a sledgehammer when a nutcracker will do the job?'" • embedding - the 500 journalists who are based within US and UK military units, living and travelling with them before and during the war. • fair-minded people - those who agree with Saddam Hussein, according to the Iraqi president. "Every fair-minded person knows that when Iraqi officials say something, they are trustworthy," he told Tony Benn, adding: "Every fair-minded person knows that as far as resolution 1441 is concerned, the Iraqis have been fulfilling their obligations under the resolution." Meanwhile, talking about Iraqi disarmament, Saddam's top science adviser, General Amir Saadi, said: "To all fair-minded people who are neutral and free, it's more than enough." • friendly fire - one of the most widely loathed terms to come of the first Gulf war, because although the fire comes from friends, it is anything but friendly. Sadly in use again, but alternatives may become popular, eg "blue on blue" casualties, or the more serious-sounding term "fratricide". • full force and might - President Bush's description of the sanction being used against Saddam. "[T]he only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to apply the full force and might of our military, and we are prepared to do so," he said in his ultimatum speech. • going kinetic - military term for invading or bombing, shorthand for kinetic targeting. Psyops, such as leafleting propaganda, is known as soft targeting. Time magazine: "'It will be highly kinetic,' an Air Force planner says with grim understatement." • hammer time - alternative to going kinetic (cf) - time to make an attack. As used by US Vice Admiral Timothy Keating on board USS Constellation on eve of war, to strains of Queen's We Will Rock You: "Make no mistake, when the president says go - look out, it's hammer time." Stands in contrast to rhetoric used by UK Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins. Reader David, UK says: "Inspires strange images of parachutepant-wearing rapper MC Hammer." • heroic efforts - what Tony Blair had made to get a second resolution, according to former UK cabinet minister Robin Cook, who wasn't so impressed that he didn't have to resign. • lightly - the correct approach for much military activity, according to Colonel Tim Collins. "Tread lightly" on Iraq, he said, adding that
killing was not to be done "lightly". At the same time, he encouraged them to be "ferocious" in battle. • legs of responsibility - what the UN needs to regain, according to George Bush: "...in the post-Saddam Iraq the UN will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can get - begin to get its legs - legs of responsibility back." • liberators not conquerors - President Bush's assertion that the US would free Iraq from Saddam's tyranny. Told US troops: "[Y]ou will be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people." It may be a phrase designed to counter claims that the US is on a crusade, being colonial, or empire building, or simply to claim moral high ground. • mercenaries - US and UK troops, according to Mohamed Said al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information. Other words used include "superpower of villains", "superpower of Al Capone", "devils", "tyrants of the century". • moab - acronym either for "Massive Ordnance Air Blast" or unofficially "Mother of All Bombs". An experimental US precision-guided bomb weighing about 21,000lbs, the largest non-nuclear bomb there is, intended to update the infamous BLU-82B Commando Vault or "Daisy Cutter". Name is a reference to Saddam's phrase "Mother of all Battles", but residents of Moab, Utah, unhappy at new connotation of their name. Reader Chris Bowden-Green, Canada, says: "It's designed for maximum psychological effect at dissuading entrenched troops." • moment of truth - as in "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world" an ultra quotable line from President Bush, warning of the failure of diplomacy. Mr Blair's line "We have reached the point of decision," could not compete for headline-grabbing potential. • mosaic - according to General Tommy Franks, the pattern made up by simultaneous approaches of air forces, ground forces and special forces. "That plan... gives me latitude to build the mosaic that I just described in a way that provides flexibility so that we can attack the enemy on our terms, and we are doing so," he told reporters • old Europe - taken to mean France and Germany, identified by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as being countries which did not agree with US policy. He later said he was surprised President Chirac had been upset by the term, and said he had a great many friends in France and Germany, adding: "I was thinking of Nato when I said old Europe. I was thinking old Nato... old Nato is at 15, the new Nato is at 26 countries, and the centre of gravity has shifted. It was not disparaging of any of those countries." • Pentagonspeak - the collection of buzzwords, catchphrases and mots du jour employed by US strategists. Coined by Time magazine, no doubt inspired by Orwell's Newspeak. • pre-H hour - another phrase for the time of invasion. "...Delta Force and CIA operatives, many of whom are foreign nationals, have been in Iraq for weeks conducting what military planners call 'pre-H-hour' (hour of
invasion) activities..." wrote Jack Kelley in USA Today. Reader Johnny Brown says: "Just the right amount of jargon-coolness." • reckless - Clare Short, the non-resigning UK minister for overseas development, asked whether she thought her prime minister had been acting recklessly: "I'm afraid that I think the whole atmosphere of the current situation is deeply reckless; reckless for the world, reckless for the undermining of the UN in this disorderly world, which is wider than Iraq - [which] the whole world needs for the future - reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history. It's extraordinarily reckless, I'm very surprised by it." • roadmap - a plan drawn up by the US, UN, EU and Russia for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, although not yet published. Not an original term - (Clinton had a roadmap for the Middle East, Pakistan had a roadmap to democracy). It does have a connotation of being practical and achievable, but it is not clear how it differs from "a plan". • serious consequences - the term used in UN resolution 1441 describing what Saddam would face if he didn't disarm. Bush and Blair say it is a clear indication that war would follow a failure to disarm. Chirac and Putin say it means some consequences less serious than that. • s, g, a - the format of battle, again according to General Tommy Franks. In his words: "The initiation of combat operations, we refer to that as D-Day. The introduction of special operations forces, we refer to that as S-Day. The introduction of ground forces, G-Day. And the introduction of shock air forces, A-Day. So the sequence you have seen, up to this point, has been S, G, A." • shock and awe - Pentagon buzzword for their tactics for attacking Iraq, the intention being to overpower Saddam with air and ground attacks designed to gain an early victory. How much "shock" an attack will be is doubtful, since everyone knows about it. But in era of "psyops", widespread advance publicity of impending shock and awe could have the desired effect of putting Iraqi forces into disarray. • Stalingrad in Mesopotamia - the historical point of reference of the week, amid fears of prolonged siege and urban warfare around Baghdad • simultaneity - another Pentagon buzzword, related to shock and awe, referring to concerted bombing and invasion happening at once. Time magazine reports: "The second Gulf War, if it comes, would be more like the Big Bang- hundreds of towering explosions all across Iraq all at the same time." • target of opportunity - related to window of opportunity, a one-off chance which hadn't been planned, perhaps inspired by intelligence. Used after the attempt to "decapitate" Saddam Hussein when his location was believed to have been identified to US forces. • that country - France, according to the UK ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock. He said "one country in particular" had declared its intention to veto any proposal that came before the Security Council.
"That country rejected our proposed compromise before even the Iraqi government itself." The Financial Times said: "While refraining from identifying France by name, Sir Jeremy abandoned normal diplomatic courtesies to point the finger at Paris." • the mark of Cain - the phrase for being known as an unlawful killer, according to Colonel Tim Collins, when addressing the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish regiment on the eve of war. "It is a big step to take another human life," he said. "It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them." Draws on religious imagery, which he later emphasised by saying Iraq was the site of the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. • tick-tock - the second-to-second attention to detailed events. Donald Rumsfeld said he was "not into the tick-tock of every hour and every minute". • under any circumstances - France's intention to veto further resolutions, according to London and Washington, which led to the end of diplomatic efforts. President Chirac's actual words (translated) were: "My position is that, regardless of the circumstances, France will vote 'no' because she considers this evening that there are no grounds for waging war in order to achieve the goal we have set ourselves, that is to say, to disarm Iraq." Some commentators say M Chirac's use of the words "this evening" indicates it was just his position while inspections were continuing. • urban warfare - fighting in streets, houses and buildings, as is feared might happen in Baghdad, when many preparations had been centred on fighting a war in a desert. • vertically envelop - invade (see going kinetic). Pentagon buzzword for the tactic of sending troops in by helicopter to seize key targets in Iraq.