The anti-Western left has come up with a new term for a terrorist. It’s “commando.” Check out this strange story on Salon. It’s a memoir of a young Palestinian terrorist by a young woman who knew him while he was being protected in the 1980s by Yugoslavia’s Communist regime. The essay attempts to show how the young man came to recognize at one point the humanity of those Israeli civilians he was about to murder. But the euphemisms in the piece are priceless. Take this sentence:
The recent (and bumbling) Achille Lauro assault, during which young Palestinian commandos hijacked a Mediterranean cruiser and killed an elderly, wheelchair-bound American tourist, coupled with those ghastly shootouts at the Rome and Vienna airports, had made a mockery of the Titoist soft spot for resistance groups and rendered dinner chats with Western diplomats unbearably awkward …
The problem with the Achille Lauro hijacking was that it was “bumbling“? If only they’d killed more Jews more effectively! Notice also that it was somehow “during” the “assault” that a murder took place. Hmmm. Wouldn’t it be more, er, accurate to say that the hijacking occurred in order to murder civilians? Notice also here the unequivocal use of the term “commando” for “terrorist.” One reader emailed me to say he thought that “commandos” were more plausibly viewed as those who try to rescue hostages, not those who try to kill them. Such silly distinctions! Elsewhere in the piece, the terrorists are called “operatives.” Like Valerie Plame. The author knew that her friend was about to kill innocent civilians but glosses over this ugly fact by saying:
Looking back now on that snowy afternoon at Abu Moses’ place, the last time I would see him, it took longer than one might expect for me to comprehend what the trip to Cyprus meant. Indeed, months of denial and doubt.
It appears those months of denial and doubt are now indeed years. And denial has morphed into excuse. And excuse into euphemism. Who is the author? We are told: “D.N. Rosina is the pseudonym of a Bay Area writer now reporting from the Middle East.” So there’s a reporter out there who thinks that terrorists are commandos. Who is she reporting for? Why has she decided to remain anonymous? And why have the editors of Salon decided to grant her that anonymity?
The Dish 