The Art of Military Euphemism

On a fairly regular basis, journalists publish rants about the euphemistic language used by the world's military forces, and in particular their use of such terms as "collateral damage" and "friendly fire". On linguistic grounds, one can object to these terms, but the reality is that they are not particularly euphemistic, as everybody knows precisely what they imply. And they merely scrape the top of the iceberg of military jargon, which contains many gems worthy of closer scrutiny.

Peace Marble. The Pentagon has the long-standing habit of given code names to all military operations and projects. Among these projects are deliveries of weaponry to other countries under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. If these involve combat aircraft, these programs are traditionally given code names that begin with Peace, a habit that suggest that program managers suffer from a severe irony deficiency. Under the code name Peace Marble one finds sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel. Peace Vector covers similar deliveries to Egypt, and Peace Gate to Pakistan.

Blue Circle. After the end of the Second World War, the British military used as system of 'Rainbow' codes, in which code names always consisted of a color and a noun. Hence Blue Danube, Orange Herald and Red Beard were names given to nuclear weapons, while Blue Vixen, Indigo Corkscrew, and Yellow Aster were radar systems. The sobriquet of Blue Circle originated in 1984, when due to technical problems, a number of new and very expensive Tornado ADV interceptor jets were delivered without their radar systems, and blocks of concrete were "installed" instead to maintain the balance of the aircraft. This ballast was promptly (and unofficially) dubbed Blue Circle, after the well-known brand of cement.

Delivery of kinetic effect. Kinetic energy is the energy of a moving object, and in particular is a property of small fast-moving objects, such as bullets. Kinetic effect is what happens when these strike their target. Hence delivery of kinetic effect has become official code for the acts of shooting or bombing. Close kin to this phrase is kinetic military action, which of course means combat. And yes, military officers routinely use this obfuscating terminology.

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. Under the official aircraft naming system introduced in the Royal Air Force in 1918 all fighter aircraft had to be given names of a zoological, vegetable or mineral nature. Seriously. The specific sub-category depended on the number of crew members: Two-seat fighters were to be named after mammals, but single-seat fighters after birds, reptiles or insects. The names also had to alliterate with the name of the manufacturer. This concept of an overheated bureaucratic imagination did result in experimental combat aircraft with enchanting names such as the Sopwith Snail, Westland Wagtail and Gloster Gnatsnapper. Perhaps unfortunately, this poetic system lasted only until 1927. In 1932 the RAF decided that hence forth fighter aircraft would get names reflecting speed, activity, or aggressiveness.

Just Cause. In a famous memorandum during WWII, Winston Churchill pointed out to his general staff that  military operations should not have names that are over-confident, boastful, despondent, or frivolous. Other obvious requirements for code names should be that do not give away the nature of the operation to the enemy, and of course that they are distinct enough to avoid confusion. The US invasion of Panama in 1988 set a dubious precedent for another practice: The selection of code names that are blatant and transparent public relations efforts. Just Cause was the first in a series that now includes toe-curling gems such as Iraqi Freedom.