Rationale
Euphemisms are used in writing to reduce offenses or disturbances in the audience created by certain words or phrases. Euphemisms are widely used in normal social contexts, the media and even politics. Politicians use euphemisms in their rhetoric to lessen the impact of their words to avoid creating alarm and heighten emotions. Political euphemisms often “sugar coat” the real message and do not give an actual portrayal of the message, in essence understating the facts. In his speech, “Responsibly ending the war in Iraq”, President Obama uses a lot of euphemisms to sound politically correct, to minimize the impact of the war in Iraq and to justify the continued presence of the US military in Iraq. This essay includes a rebuttal of these euphemisms and shows how the euphemisms used downplay certain situations arising from the war, and how they are used to justify the continued occupation of Iraq.
Euphemisms used in the speech.
The euphemisms used by Obama are mainly words or phrases that paint a better picture of the actual situation to make it look more appealing and honorable. He also uses a “spin” or “doublespeak” to justify temporarily increasing the number of soldiers in Iraq while his speech is about ending and withdrawing US presence in …show more content…
It is also a job which they signed up for and have to fulfill this duty which they cannot easily get out of unless they are injured or are discharged by the army. The word service is used to make the task appealing to soldiers convincing them that they are serving their country and that it is an honor. The irony here is that they are not serving their country, but are offering their services to another country which was against their presence and in some areas still opposes this