Maybe the media

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Buy into the words used by the Pentagon, US government and other state organs when briefing the press or making statements about Israel or Afghanistan

If you do too then you are not being honest with yourself

Just look at the following and think what these words really mean

Do you believe in the 'peace process'

Or the 'road map'.

Or keeping the 'fence' around the Palestinians.

Or even better let the 'key players' sort it out.

Then we are told even more outrageously that what we have to deal with in the Middle East are 'competing narratives'.

How very pleasant no war no occupation.
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There's no justice, no injustice, just a couple of people who tell different history stories.
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'Competing narratives' now regularly appears in the British press.
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It deletes the possibility that one group of people - in the Middle East, for example - are occupied, while another group of people are doing the occupying.
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Again, no justice, no injustice, no oppression or oppressing, just some friendly 'competing narratives', a football match, if you like, a level playing field because the two sides are - are they not - 'in competition'.
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It's two sides in a football match.
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And two sides have to be given equal time in every story.
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So an 'occupation' can become a 'dispute'.
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Thus a 'wall' becomes a 'fence' or a 'security barrier'.
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Thus Israeli colonisation of Arab land contrary to all international law becomes 'settlements' or 'outposts' or 'Jewish neighbourhoods'
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And when we use these words, we become one with the power and the elites which rule our world without fear of challenge from the media.
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How many times have we heard western reporters talking about 'foreign fighters' in Afghanistan?
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They are referring, of course, to the various Arab groups supposedly helping the Taliban.
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We heard the same story from Iraq. Saudis, Jordanians, Palestinian, Chechen fighters, of course.
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The generals called them 'foreign fighters'.
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And then immediately western reporters did the same.
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Calling them 'foreign fighters' meant they were an invading force.
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But not once - ever - have we heard a mainstream western television station refer to the fact that there are at least 150,000 'foreign fighters' in Afghanistan.
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And that the greatest number of 'foreign fighters' are in American or other Nato uniforms!
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Robert Fisk

In many other fields governments and politicians have developed the art of hiding reality behind semantics

Behind words that take away the sting and so soften the reality to comfortable sound bites or phrases

Unfortunately most journalists take what they are given and publish without too much thought for the disservice they do to their readers or viewers

Let us wake up and understand that 'collateral damage' is the murder of people