Saturday, April 14, 2012

Newspaper article

http://rt.com/news/pakistan-us-nato-demands-022/

This article originates from Russia Today and it talks about the controversy behind the US drone strikes in Pakistan.

There are a bunch of euphemisms used in this article, however there is one that particularly stands out.
"but if suspected terrorist targets are detected by the CIA drone’s hellfire missiles lasers, they will shoot. "


The euphemism is "suspected terrorist targets".

It is used in order to rule out the possibility of peaceful civilians or ordinary Pakistani soldiers.
The euphemism aims to justify the drone strikes in the Pakistani territory, and tries to justify the CIA's actions.

The language being used in this case is bending the truth as it aims to conceal the number of civilian casualties that accompany every dead terrorist.

The language is further used to influence the public opinion on the War on Terror and perhaps gain more support.

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