Mislead Euphemism in Bashar al-Assad’s Speech

19. Foreigner

Foreigner means a person who comes from another country. However, in the last part of the speech transcript, Assad specifies that “Syria will remain strong, proud, resilient and inviolable to any foreigner” A16. It means that the meaning of foreigner is more than just a person from another country, but someone who has the possibility to damage or violate Syria. In reality, Syria has witnessed foreign invasions in the Arab world such as in Iraq and Libya. These invasions were carried out to depose dictators ruling the countries at that time. The invading forces were from the West. They were United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and NATO, a military alliance controlled by the West. Seeing this phenomenon, Bashar al-Assad is preparing himself for such possibility to strike his country. In this case, expressions such as outsider and external threat will actually be more suitable. Outsider refers to a person who is not liked or accepted as a member of a particular group, organization or society and who feels different from those people who are accepted as members. This expression contains the semantic property disliked while foreigner does not imply such meaning. External threat is a suggestion that something unpleasant or violent will happen due to an outside force. From this definition, it can be seen how the expression contains the semantic property possible damage. This semantic property is not shown in foreigner and it is sometimes shown in outsider. Below is the table which shows the semantic properties contained in the expressions foreigner, outsider, and external threat. foreigner outsider external threat not from the country + + + disliked - + + possible damage - ± + Table 21. Semantic properties of foreigner, outsider, and external threat

20. Military Operation

Military operation is a term used in warfare. Operation itself means an activity which is planned to achieve something. Military means relating to or belonging to the armed forces. Therefore, a military operation is an activity conducted by the armed forces. This expression is rather uncertain in terms of the kind of activity that the armed forces are engaged in. It might be a crossfire, siege, strike, or a mere peacekeeping. However, Assad used this term in regards to the Battle of Aleppo A17. The city of Aleppo is one of the deadliest battlefields across Syria. It has been a bloodbath from 2012 to the present time. Both the Syrian Armed Forces SFA and the FSA have been trying to seize the city and send away the other using extreme violence or simply every means that is possible. It was reported that there has been 22,665 casualties of the ongoing battle and the number is likely to keep on increasing. The expression military operation, therefore, does not quite portray what has been happing in Aleppo since it does not explicitly show the semantic properties combat and offensive. Battle means a fight between armed forces. Compared to the expression military operation, battle is more explicit in conveying the meaning that the armed forces are engaged in a combat and not just a peacekeeping nor other non-combat operation. Therefore, battle contains the semantic property combat, although it does not necessarily contain the semantic property offensive since the tone of battle is neutral. Offensive, on the other hand, tends to focuses on the attacking party instead of the one who is defending. In battle, it does not matter which party is defending and which is attacking. Attack is a violent act intended to hurt or damage someone or something. Compared to the expressions military operation and battle, the semantic properties contained in attack are more explicit. Since attack specifies a violent act conducted to damage something, it means the expression contains the meaning combat. Combat itself is defined as a fight between parties, especially during war. Furthermore, it implies an intention to hurt or damage. It means that the purpose of this act is not merely to defend oneself against a threat or mediate an armed conflict, but it goes to the extent of intentionally damaging the other party. Thus, attack contains the semantic properties combat and offensive. These semantic properties are vaguely included in the euphemistic expression military operation. Therefore, in order to see the distinction between these three expressions, the table below compares the semantic properties which are included in the expressions military operation, battle, and attack.