Speaking peace

Well, I believe them but I'm not sure the right-wing press, eager for an easy reason to run a PC-language riff, will be convinced. (And see here for an example of the way the editorial riffs can develop out of nearly nothing* -assuming the report itself is not one!). I believe them because, looking at the actual phrases mentioned, I do think that they have taken on board some of the better insights of those working in peace and reconciliation:

"This is not about political correctness, but effectiveness - evidence shows that people stop listening if they think you are attacking them."

I salute and celebrate the toning down of the martial rhetoric. I fear it may be too late: it may now come over as mere verbal change. On the other hand by eliding the Islamic reference, is it setting up to fail by not really recognising that it is a variant of Islamic discourse (allorhetorical variation?) that is being used to ideologically undergird the particular form of terrorism being countered.

*We have recently heard of just one instance in the way that one newspaper reported our daughter's recent hit-and-run: not only was 10 years added to her age, but an extra and untrue detail was added; that she was returning home after partying with friends. I guess the latter was in there because "that's what young women always do". She was in fact walking the dog and coming back home after meeting her boyfriend off his bus from work.