A squirt or a surge? Both are miscast war metaphors

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2007 | by Lionel Beehner

When talking about war, sports analogies are out, liquid metaphors are in. Turn on the tube and some military official or policy wonk is likely to be yapping on about Iraq in language that will make you thirsty.

Take Gen. David Petraeus' interview with PBS' Jim Lehrer: "We are keeping the pressure on (the insurgents), in fact, in those areas, as those elements, in a sense, squirt, or move out of Baghdad." Defense Secretary Robert Gates has echoed the point, referring again to Iraq's "squirt" effect. Or as retired Army captain Phillip Carter told PBS' NewsHour, "You squeeze the bad guys out of Baghdad, and they pop like a water balloon up into the Diyala province." To which Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute retorted, "It's not just about squeezing water...