The Trouble with Doublespeak

Let's start things off with the obligatory news clip:

From the BBC:

Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through Baghdad denouncing the US occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Demonstrators loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied in the square where the ousted Iraqi leader's statue was toppled in 2003.
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I can't really blame the Iraqis who have been fed the line about occupation and the evil Americans from birth, but the BBC should know to be more clear.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the US is not occupying Iraq. Not all foreign military presence can be termed occupation. It is a very specific status with clearly defined obligations. The US ceased to occupy Iraq almost a year ago, when the Coalition Provisional Authority(CPA) ceased to exist and was replace by the Iraqi Interim Government(IIG).

Incidentally the IIG is about to be replaced by a second elected interim goverment. For clarity's sake I will list the definition of occupation which supposedly applies to this situation.

• Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces.
• The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.

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The CPA was, in its time, a military government which controlled Iraq. It was run from the Pentagon. It no longer exists. The Iraqi interim government has controlled Iraq's affairs since then, hence no occupation.

The problem comes because occupation is a loaded term, especially in the Middle East. It harkens back to true occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. Israelis are bad, Israelis are occupiers. Americans are occupiers, Americans are bad.

That simple, the power of the pejorative.

I had a debate on a similarly misapplied term: Neoconservative or neocon. Unlike "occupation" neocon has ceased to become a truly descriptive term at all.

The dictionary definition highlights the absurdity of all this

neoconservativism

n : an approach to politics or theology that represents a return to a traditional point of view (in contrast to more liberal or radical schools of thought of the 1960s)
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Didn't we already have name for this? We call them conservatives.

Instead of signifying what it really means neocon is now the new media friendly slur against any Republican hawks. It is almost never used positively.

It is a perfect tool for propaganda just like "occupation." A word entirely composed of connotation.

The power of suggestion is a dangerous thing.

My point: Try to use terms that actually mean something, resist the buzzwords and the political discourse will be the better for it.