Vowing to ’destroy terrorists,’ France adopts words of war

With its talk of "destroying" enemies and confronting "jihadi terrorists", France has adopted a language of war for its intervention in Mali that few expected from Socialist President Francois Hollande.

隨著所謂「消滅」敵人及對抗「聖戰恐怖份子」等說法，法國政府在干預馬利戰事時也採用了一套少有人料到會從社會黨總統歐蘭德口中說出來的戰爭語彙。

As French warplanes carry out airstrikes and French troops clash with Islamist rebels in the West African country, Hollande and his ministers seem to have taken a page from former US president George W. Bush’s playbook on war-time communications.

在法國軍機前往這個西非國家發動空襲，法軍部隊正和伊斯蘭叛軍展開激戰之際，歐蘭德及其政府部長似乎抄襲了美國前總統布希的戰時宣傳方式。

"The use of language is calibrated： the cause is just, a fight against terrorism, us/them, good/bad. These are the fundamentals of war-time communication," said Francois-Bernard Huyghe, a researcher at the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations.

「他們使用的語言都經過精心考量：出兵有正當的理由，這是對抗恐怖主義的戰爭，我們／他們，好／壞。這些正是戰爭語言的基本元素，」巴黎的國際與戰略關係研究所研究員雨格表示。

Holland’s words seemed to echo not only Bush but also Russian officials who have repeatedly vowed to "liquidate terrorists" in their fight against insurgents in Chechnya and other parts of the volatile North Caucasus region.

歐蘭德的語彙似乎不只是附和布希，也和在對抗車臣及其他情勢不穩的北高加索地區叛軍時，屢次矢言要「消滅恐怖份子」的俄羅斯官員雷同。

French media reported that ministers have been banned from using the words "Islamist fighters" in statements on the conflict and must always refer to rebels as "terrorists".

法國媒體也報導說，政府各部長在針對這場戰事發表聲明時，被禁止使用「伊斯蘭戰士」等字眼，而必須稱叛軍為「恐怖份子」。

"Reducing them simply to terrorists is too easy, it erases the complexity of the problem, obscures the reality," Huyghe said.（AFP）

「把叛軍簡化為恐怖份子實在太容易了，它消除了問題的複雜性，更混淆了現實，」雨格表示。（法新社）

新聞辭典

take a page/leaf from someone’s book：片語，指模仿某人的舉止，如Maybe I should take a page out of his book and start coming in at ten every morning.（或許我也該效法他，開始每天早上十點才進公司。）

calibrate：動詞，指精確測量某事物、或指仔細評估和調整（抽象事物），如carefully assess, set, or adjust（something abstract），如The regulators cannot properly calibrate the risks involved（監督人員無法確切評估此事涉及的風險），作形容詞時為calibrated，如their carefully calibrated economic policies（他們那些經過謹慎評量的經濟政策）。

liquidate：動詞，非正式用語，指以暴力手法殺害某人，如The film is about a professional killer who’s hired to liquidate a powerful businessman.（這部電影是描述一名職業殺手受僱去殺害一名極有影響力的商人。）