Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes

The US government, like all governments, speaks in tired, clunky euphemisms that evade the grotesquerie of their depravity, from drone strikes or assassinations of alleged terrorists are targeted killings of insurgents or militants. The killing of civilians is collateral damage, during the War on Terror, suspected terrorists, or terrorist cells, were not kidnapped and brutalized in torture facilities. The CIA engaged in extraordinary rendition, where detainees were brought to black sites, and they used enhanced interrogation techniques on them, not methods of torture. These enhanced techniques include stress positions, sleep management, sexual humiliation, and waterboarding. The US doesn’t go to war, which is why the Biden regime so confidently declared that at the time of his reign, the US was not at war.[1] Instead, the US military takes police actions, engages in special military operations, missions, engagements, or kinetic military actions.[2]

The Trump regime has adopted this silly, vapid phrase. He announced his strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and on supposed Venezuelan drug boats as “kinetic strikes”[3] His Iran strikes have also been characterized as “surgical strikes” or “precision strikes”[4] This evades the fact that such attacks are an act of war, or, if they were enacted by a bad country, like Russia or China, they would be considered acts of war. The first Gulf War was not the US going to war, according to the Department of Defense, they were “efforts”, or they were dropping “force packages”[5] These grossly evasive turns of phrase do not just disguise violative acts as positive or innocuous, they are part of a double standard, as the US and Western powers do not depict the actions of their adversaries as they do their own. Russia’s war with Ukraine is an invasion, but the US and its allies did not invade Iraq or Afghanistan, they intervened. The overthrow of leaders in Haiti, Panama, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, and numerous other countries was not invasive or meddling, they are regime change operations or humanitarian interventions, and they are depicted as liberating missions. Consider the idea of democracy promotion, an important tenet of many US administrations, or that the US building a multitude of military bases encircling China and funneling arms of Taiwan is not provocative, they are building deterrence, and they are purely defensive maneuvers, however, when China flies planes in Taiwan’s airspace (which is China’s airspace too), it is a provocation. Israel does not invade its neighbors, and they are not annexing more of the Golan Heights in Syria, they are, according to the BBC, “expanding their settlements” there, following the fall of the Assad regime, and so it goes.[6]

We only use euphemisms to describe our own actions. When it comes to the actions of our enemies, we never hesitate to point and cry invasion, aggression, genocide, annexation, war, or act of terror.

However, the Trump regime is beginning a slight turn from the lifeless, softening language of the US government. The Department of Defense has been renamed the Department of War, which it was originally called. In his announcement of the change, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that “we haven’t won a major war since … whether it’s the Korean War or the Vietnam War, or our generation of Iraq and Afghanistan.”[7] According to the US government, none of these conflicts were wars. Officially the Korean and Vietnam wars were not wars, the Korean war was a “police action”, and the Vietnam war was an “incursion”[8] This was done to avoid the need for congressional approval. The US did go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, as this was done under the AUMF after 9/11, the establishment of the global War on Terror. This authorization has been invoked to enter multiple countries, from Mali to Somalia. Is Hegseth then admitting that the US is in fact at war on multiple fronts?

US military strikes, and its many acts of terror, are cloaked in soft language to hide the reality of what’s being done. They are also distortions of language. They turn language into propagandic tools. Consider the term kinetic strikes. Kinetic means in motion, and a strike is a forceful or aggressive attack or a hit of someone or something. A strike is a movement. It is already implied that a motion or action is being preformed. What is the point of placing kinetic before it? You would not say to your friend that you are going on a kinetic walk or that you are going for a kinetic swim. Of course, there is the alternative to kinetic warfare, non-kinetic warfare, which usually refers to cyberwarfare. This makes no sense, simply as a point of language, how is a cyberattack non-kinetic, while a missile strike or bombing is kinetic? Both are the results of actions. Someone hacking a network is preforming an action, just like someone remote controlling a drone and pressing a button is. They are both likely sitting down, so what is the actual difference? How is a cyberattack less kinetic than a drone strike, and if it is non-kinetic, then what does kinetic mean? Does it mean something other than being in motion or movement? Why do we allow these pencil pushing louts to put the English language through a paper shredder?

The primary problem with using euphemisms to talk about war is of course the issue of moralizing and pretending that we do not go to war, that is what those other bad guys do, we intervene, we protect, we are humanitarians, just like the British empire did not colonize places, they went on civilizing missions. Importantly, when we distort the way we speak, we warp how we think, so now we think about war in a twisted way. We have been trained to see war as brutal and abhorrent, thus our wars must be given other names.

Political language is so laden with jargon and euphemisms that to the unaware, it is utterly incomprehensible. It upholds an appearance, instead of communicating an idea. As Goerge Orwell notes, it “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”[9] When language is merely a tool of the powerful, it loses its power of meaningful expression and imagination. That is why euphemisms like kinetic strike, which on its face seems harmless, is so insidious. Crimes against language must be called out and rectified, as if we allow the ruling class to shape our language, we allow them to mould our minds.

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[1] Petti, Matthew. “Biden Brags That ‘the United States Is Not at War’ as He Bombs Yemen.” Reason.com, July 25, 2024. https://reason.com/2024/07/25/biden-brags-that-the-united-states-is-not-at-war-as-he-bombs-yemen/.

[2] Astore, William J. “All the Euphemisms We Use for ‘War.’” http://www.thenation.com, April 15, 2016. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/all-the-euphemisms-we-use-for-war/., Danihel, Frank. “Government Euphemisms: Obscuring the Truth in Official Language.” Qfac.ca, 2022. https://www.qfac.ca/blog/government-euphemisms-obscuring-the-truth-in-official-language., Henley, Jon. “US Military Torture Euphemisms.” the Guardian, December 13, 2007. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/13/usa.humanrights., Ottenberg, Eve. “Euphemisms for War Are Deadly.” CounterPunch.org. CounterPunch, October 13, 2023. https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/10/13/euphemisms-for-war-are-deadly/.

[3] Hegseth. “Tweet.” X (formerly Twitter), 2025. https://x.com/SecWar/status/1983676996220588093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1983676996220588093%7Ctwgr%5Ed19ffc9d4cd9a6fa1c4c639323f51d8c9fc4fc33%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2025%2F10%2F30%2Fus-says-it-killed-four-terrorists-in-latest-strike-on-alleged-drug-vessel.

[4] The Five. “‘The Five’ Amazed by the ‘Depth and Breadth’ of Israel’s ‘Precise,’ ‘Surgical’ Strike on Iran | Fox News Video.” Fox News, June 13, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6374254811112. and Wallace, Danielle, and J.D Vance. “JD Vance Says Iranian Nuclear Program ‘Substantially’ Set Back after ‘Precise, Surgical’ US Strikes.” Fox News, June 22, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jd-vance-says-iranian-nuclear-program-substantially-set-back-after-precise-surgical-us-strikes.

[5] Danihel. “Government Euphemisms: Obscuring the Truth in Official Language.”

[6] Atkinson, Emily. “Israel to Expand Golan Heights Settlements after Fall of Assad.” BBC, December 15, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6lgln128xo.

[7] Hegseth, Pete. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia.” U.S. Department of War, 2025. https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/.

[8] Thorne, Stephen J. “Euphemisms, Acronyms and Outright Lies: The Language of War.” Legion Magazine, June 19, 2019. https://legionmagazine.com/euphemisms-acronyms-and-outright-lies-the-language-of-war/.

[9] Orwell, George. Why I Write. 1946. Reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

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References

Astore, William J. “All the Euphemisms We Use for ‘War.’” http://www.thenation.com, April 15, 2016. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/all-the-euphemisms-we-use-for-war/.

Atkinson, Emily. “Israel to Expand Golan Heights Settlements after Fall of Assad.” BBC, December 15, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6lgln128xo.

Danihel, Frank. “Government Euphemisms: Obscuring the Truth in Official Language.” Qfac.ca, 2022. https://www.qfac.ca/blog/government-euphemisms-obscuring-the-truth-in-official-language.

Hegseth, Pete. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia.” U.S. Department of War, 2025. https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/.

———. “Tweet.” X (formerly Twitter), 2025. https://x.com/SecWar/status/1983676996220588093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1983676996220588093%7Ctwgr%5Ed19ffc9d4cd9a6fa1c4c639323f51d8c9fc4fc33%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2025%2F10%2F30%2Fus-says-it-killed-four-terrorists-in-latest-strike-on-alleged-drug-vessel.

Henley, Jon. “US Military Torture Euphemisms.” the Guardian, December 13, 2007. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/13/usa.humanrights.

Orwell, George. Why I Write. 1946. Reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

Ottenberg, Eve. “Euphemisms for War Are Deadly.” CounterPunch.org. CounterPunch, October 13, 2023. https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/10/13/euphemisms-for-war-are-deadly/.

Petti, Matthew. “Biden Brags That ‘the United States Is Not at War’ as He Bombs Yemen.” Reason.com, July 25, 2024. https://reason.com/2024/07/25/biden-brags-that-the-united-states-is-not-at-war-as-he-bombs-yemen/.

The Five. “‘The Five’ Amazed by the ‘Depth and Breadth’ of Israel’s ‘Precise,’ ‘Surgical’ Strike on Iran | Fox News Video.” Fox News, June 13, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6374254811112.

Thorne, Stephen J. “Euphemisms, Acronyms and Outright Lies: The Language of War.” Legion Magazine, June 19, 2019. https://legionmagazine.com/euphemisms-acronyms-and-outright-lies-the-language-of-war/.

Wallace, Danielle, and J.D Vance. “JD Vance Says Iranian Nuclear Program ‘Substantially’ Set Back after ‘Precise, Surgical’ US Strikes.” Fox News, June 22, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jd-vance-says-iranian-nuclear-program-substantially-set-back-after-precise-surgical-us-strikes.