The cliché : A plague

[John Kane]

Interesting Robert Fisk rant

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-avoid-clich-like-the-plague-never-889296.html

John Kane Kingston ON Canada

[Richard R. Hershberger]

On Aug 12, 10:40 am, John Kane <jrkrid...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Interesting Robert Fisk rant
>

> http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-av...

>
> John Kane Kingston ON Canada

Well, interesting in the sense of "weird". "Iraqi war veterans" is a
concise and clear way of expressing the idea of a veteran who was in
the Iraq war. (In American English I would expect "Iraq war veteran"
rather than "Iraqi war veteran. I assume this is a dialect
difference.) If this is a cliché to be avoided, how are we to express
this idea? Or is his objection to the mere fact of expressing this
idea? (I don't know what his politics are, but I often find this
sort of piece is a political rant disguised as a linguistic rant.)

Richard R. Hershberger

[pritsy]

"Richard R. Hershberger" <rrh...@acme.com> wrote in message
news:5ee4af5a-613c-4b06...@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

I find "Iraqi war veteran" confusing. Does it refer to ex-soldiers who
fought in the current war in Iraq, or does it refer to Iraqi ex-soldiers
who fought in any war? I prefer to use "Iraq war veteran" for the former.
A Google search shows most agree, nearly 14 to 1.

[HVS]

On 12 Aug 2008, pritsy wrote

>
> I find "Iraqi war veteran" confusing. Does it refer to
> ex-soldiers who fought in the current war in Iraq, or does it
> refer to Iraqi ex-soldiers who fought in any war? I prefer to
> use "Iraq war veteran" for the former. A Google search shows
> most agree, nearly 14 to 1.

I agree, too: an Iraqi war veteran is an Iraqi who fought for his
country in a war.

If returning US soldiers are to be called "Iraqi war veterans", then
the war they've fought in must be the "Iraqi war".

AFAIK, that's not what it's commonly called.

--
Cheers, Harvey
CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed