Recent events in Pakistan and Norway have sharpened the focus on the capacity we have to inflict harm on other people while claiming that the ends justify the means. Nearly 30 years ago, as Israel launched "Operation Peace for Galilee" (their codeword for what amounted to the virtual invasion of Lebanon), the Israeli writer Amos Oz commented:
"Wherever war is called peace, where oppression and persecution are referred to as security, and assassination is called liberation, the defilement of the language precedes and prepares for the defilement of life and dignity."
"Sub-rosa operations", "friendly fire", "collateral damage" - what a difference a newspaper could make if it refused to use these formulations and instead each time wrote in full what these phrases actually meant. It would, at least, be a start in the constant war we wage against the abolition of thinking.
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