Just because they are "formally" known by the name "militia", and I doubt
that they are, doesn't give license to U.S. officials license to become
complicit in the hijacking of the term by misusing it themselves. They might
refer to themselves using any number of hijacked terms: "God's Warriors",
"juries", "Defenders of the Faith", "Freedom Fighters", or whatever, but to
use those terms is to either confuse people or to cast a favorable judgment
on them, which is not what is intended.
There is a much larger issue here. The term "militia" is not just being
misused in a Middle East context, but globally, including within the United
States, where there has been a concerted effort to stigmatize dissenters
with the term, and to equate it with "terrorist" and other derogatory terms.
Dr. Rice may not have thought through the larger implications of what she
is participating in doing by her misuse of the term, but others have, and
those efforts constitute a significant challenge to our constitutional rights.
Our chief diplomat should know better than most the importance of choosing
the right words in everything she says. Unnecessary wars have begun over the
misuse of words in a similar way.
The armed groups in Lebanon and the Middle East are not militia, and calling
them militia doesn't make them so.
Paul Laska wrote:
Especially as Sec.of State, she has to use the terms which apply to the
situation at hand. In Lebanon, these are known formally as
militias...Christian Militia, etc. To use another term would be improper
and potentially confusing...she must call a spade a spade, so no one
would confuse it with a pitchfork...
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