Creating names is one of the very few things I know a little something about and it can be a powerful thing. And it's an influential tool when used to employ an euphemism -- otherwise known as slapping pretty over ugly. Currently it's being employed liberally about the situation in Iraq if you look at stories surrounding the Blackwater Security fracas. The guys being maligned are described as "contractors", which paints a pictured of friendly guys in jeans, chewing gum and scratching their butts while working on a house. Even the left-leaning NYTimes uses the government-issued moniker, although in simpler, unspun times these hombres were called mercenaries. Then or now, they're really guns for hire that don't care what side they're blazing away for so much as making their going rate. Knowing that should make you want to look a lot closer at some of the names, words and phrases being used on both sides of the conflict. Conflict? What the heck. Let's call it "war".
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