Fauxnews is calling the mess hall attack..

[Roon]

the works of a "suicide" bomber....what happened to "homicide" bomber?

[Eric J in MN]

1. Maybe they're so busy attacking the phrase "Happy Holidays"

that they forgot their outrage over the phrase "suicide bomber."

[trotsky]

2. Hmmm and from the network that coined it!

How interesting...

[The Night Owl]

3. I believe the term "homicide bomber" came from the Bush administration...

I'm not sure, but I believe that Ari Fleischer was the first to use the term "homicide bombers" to describe suicide bombers.

[Mabus]

7. That's what I thought, here's the skinny on it

Kudos Night Owl,

http://www.wordspy.com/words/homicidebombing.asp


Notes:
This phrase has been in the news since last Friday, April 12, when White House spokesman Ari Fleischer first ran it up the linguistic flagpole (see the first use, below):

Fox News (and The New York Post; see above) immediately took up the new usage, but CNN and the news divisions of ABC, CBS, and NBC continue to use suicide bombing and suicide bomber. The numerous media accounts that have felled an untold number of trees to parse this simple phrase have mostly made it sound as though "homicide bombing" didn't exist before April 12. Not true, as the earliest citation shows.


Earliest Citation:
''We're working systematically very, very hard in arduous conditions,'' Killorin said. ''This is what we know. The man is in the area. We've confirmed that. Absolutely, we're very careful because this person is wanted for a homicide bombing.''
—Kathy Scruggs, "Manhunt for Rudolph expected to drag on," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, July 22, 1998


First Use:
The president ... convened a meeting of the National Security Council, at which point, in the middle of the meeting, the president was informed about this morning's homicide bombing in Jerusalem. ... The Saudi telethon, as they have told it to us, is to provide assistance to the Palestinian people, and that isn't — no money is going to go to provide the homicide bombers with any assistance from the Saudi government.
—Ari Fleischer, "White House Regular Briefing," Federal News Service, April 12, 2002

[DrCorday]

8. Wow, nice Madus...

Madus really nailed it on that one, I must say...

[Mabus]

9. You use the origin of the word you have,

not the origin you might want later.

Credit goes to the Word Spy website. Not me.

[DrCorday]

10. Cool.

Never heard of Word Spy, but I just checked it out and it's pretty cool.

Thanks a lot either way!

[Lexingtonian]

16. it's lifted from Israeli propaganda

so technically, it's a 'calque'.

You've never heard anything as stupid or ridiculous sounding as Ariel Sharon butchering English with the terms 'homicide bomber'. It was extraordinarily embarrassing as propaganda failures go.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. It is the STUPIDEST term, too. Because anyone killing in bombings

where they did NOT commit suicide would also be "homicide" bombers by that reasoning, and the additional information is lost. STUPID propaganda.

[DS1]

17. It's a Fleischerism

[Mabus]

4. Elizabeth "Libby" Dole still uses it

but then, she's an idiot whose brain has been eaten by the hairspray and face paint she uses.

It seems to one of the few things that the rest of the MSM refused to pick up on.

[DrCorday]

5. Agh... Fox News.

Watching Fox News the other day, I noticed they're also into this new idea: "the war on extremism." When did the war on terrorism become the war on extremism?!

I personally liked the war on terrorism better. While just as horribly vague, it wasn't quite as hippocritical.

(PS. They in this case was Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers, but I've heard O'Reilly use in on occaision.)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. I would say the most dangerous group of extremists are in the WH, and

are propped up by FOX news. Hence this "war on extremism" is a particularly inappropriate wording.

[nankerphelge]

6. It never made sense to me to begin with...

Wouldn't every bomber who kills someone be a homicide bomber, regardless of whether or not they blew themself up at the same time?

[bunkerbuster1]

11. Of COURSE it never made sense

it was doublespeak from the git-go.

[Spinzonner]

14. Technically, shouldn't it be Murder-Suicide bombing ?

[baldguy]

15. Simple

"Homicide Bomber" didn't have a high enough retention quotient or emotive valuation among the target demographic.

[Egalitariat]

18. If the aim of a "suicide bomber" is "suicide", wouldn't he/she be better

off doing it in an open field away from people? That would lessen their chances of being shot by a guard.

If the aim of the bomber is actually "homicide" and not "suicide", then isn't it more technically correct to call it a "homicide bomber"?

To tell you the truth, I don't really care what we call it. The fact that we've got enough time and energy to debate whether or not it should be "suicide bomber" or "homicide bomber" just shows how much better off we are than the poor folks over there who actually have to worry about the shrapnel.