Power of Words in Wartime

1. Lakoff believes that the power of words in wartime have the ability to make it easier to kill a person by changing what to call the ones that the soldiers combat.

2. I think that Lakoff is right when she says that it is easier to kill.

3. I believe that this essay is primarily about anti-war. Lakoff uses Abu Ghraib as an example that people have to go into war with a different language and mentality so that there is no problem with torturing and humiliating another human being. War causes people to think and see things differently, and to make soldiers believe that torturing and humiliating another as "unthinkable" is not right.

4. I think Lakoff exaggerates that people have to absorb through linguistic habit. What if the people the soldiers combat really are less than humans and are a threat to society? Can you really say people have to absorb a linguistic habit to make them feel they are fighting an enemy? Most likely, the feeling will be there already.

5. Americans are also victims. There probably hasn't been a time in United States history when Americans did not go to war as the victim or belief as or to become one, and as the aggressor. But then again "victim" is just one of those words. I think her arguement is not for Americans to stop war, but to stop war altogether.