Tank hits landmine

One of the refreshing things about Taliban propaganda is that the ragheads are blessedly (or is that word politically incorrect?) free of alphabetical jargon. 'US tank hits landmine explosion in Helmand,' writes Qari Yousuf Ahmadi on Voice of Jihad. Of course it wasn't a tank, if the incident took place at all; likely it was an MRAP, a vehicle so new that the military has no name for it, only the acronym for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected. Or a Humvee, which at least can be pronounced, but which is likewise the smoothing out of the acronym for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

Ah, for the days when things had names, however foolish! Tank, for instance--that was a British cover word to hide the fact that they were developing an armored, tracked vehicle to roll over the trenches of World War I. Happily the code word stuck, and we don't have to talk about the ATVROT battles on the Eastern Front.

I think the Taliban are on to something with their homely translations. How much more evocative is "landmine" than Improvised Explosive Device! Perhaps if we could restore our language to its onetime flexibility we would be faring better in the Global War on Terror, Overseas Contingency Operation, Struggle Against Violent Extremism (whose acronym sounded a bit like a call for help), Man-Caused Disaster, or whatever it's called today. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford