Why Words Matter

Deroy Murdock, in a column for National Review Online, lays out the importance of describing things as they really are in the war against the jihadists:

While basketball players and their fans battle each other on TV, actresses suffer wardrobe malfunctions, and rap singers scream sweet nothings in our ears, it's very easy to forget that Islamic extremists plot daily to end all of that and more by killing as many of us as possible.

Language can lull Americans to sleep in this new war, or it can keep us on the offense and our enemies off balance

Terror and the English Language

(link courtesy of In the Red Zone)


We are at war with an enemy who has vowed to kill us by the millions, and aspires to create a totalitarian Islamist superstate that would seek our destruction. We must use language that recognizes this reality. Terrorists who massacre civilians and behead prisoners are not "rebels" or "militants".