Language Makes A Difference

Deroy Murdock makes a great point today about language related to our war with Islamofascist terrorists. How we say what we say can either makes a difference in how we think about that conflict. He offers some good examples.

September 11 was an attack, not just a string of coincidental strokes and heart failures that eliminated thousands of victims at once.

Recall some of the words that soon followed the September 11 atrocity. Kinko's stores, for instance, installed placed with the Stars and Stripes emblazoned across the lower 48 states. That graphic included this regrettable caption:

"The Kinko's family extends our condolences and sympathies to all Americans who have been affected by the circumstances in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania."

Circumstances? That word describes an electrical blackout, not terrorist bloodshed.

Similarly, September 11 was tragic, but far more, too. "The September 11 tragedy" misses the point: Tornadoes cause tragedies, but they are not malicious, as America's enemies were that day, and still are.

Victims of terrorism do not "die," nor are they "lost." They are killed, murdered, and slaughtered.

Likewise, many say that people "died" in the Twin Towers and at the Pentagon. No, people "die" in hospitals, often surrounded by their loved ones while doctors and nurses offer them aid and comfort.

The innocent people at the World Trade Center, the Defense Department, and that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were killed in a carefully choreographed act of mass murder.

Just like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 was not a natural disaster. It wasn't a tsunami. Let's make the distinction.