A Portmanteau: Humpty Dumpty sat on a Woard

[ish mailian]

In the beginning there was the War, then came the Ward, then the Word.

The "global war on terrorism" has challenged our language:

what is a war these days,
what is a global war,
how is it different from world wars of the past,
and what is a war on global terrorism,
what is terrorism,
and how will language,
and the law,
the laws of nations, of alliances and treaties, of international
organizations, of agreements on issues like prisoners of war, and thus, the
Wards of war, be they prisons or hospitals or both
describe, define, and make legal sense of it all?

Interpretation of law is dependent on the meaning of words. There are
considerable differences in the interpretation and application of the
agreed to international laws, with respect to all these questions.

War makes Humpty Dumptys of us all. We use words as we see fit, with
arrogance, with out regard for the Alice who questions our meanings. We mix
them up, expeditiously, merge them with contradictory meanings, and justify
our crimes and so on. The War makes of the Word a Ward and we are but
prisoners in it.

And all the kings horses and men can't pull the portmanteau apart again.

Only peace can do that.
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