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In his famous essay ”Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell gave examples of euphemisms used to cover up brutal realities.
”Pacification,” he said, meant bombing defenseless villages. ”Transfer of population” meant stealing land from farmers and turning them into homeless refugees.
Your editorial in favor of $100 million of aid to the contras offers a euphemism that ranks with Orwell`s classic examples. You say that the money for the contras, while not enough to overthrow the Sandinista government, will ”keep the Nicaraguan regime busy.” That jaunty phrase means killing hundreds, maybe thousands, of Nicaraguans and increasing the wartime suffering and poverty of the rest of Nicaragua`s people.
