Boots on the ground

There's growing discussion of some sort of US troop deployment against Iran, but little appreciation of the scale it would need.

Modern language around military action is full of euphemisms, like the notorious collateral damage for unintended civilian casualties. Of course deliberately killing civilians or destroying civilian infrastructure has its own euphemism, countervalue targeting. But one of the most pernicious one has been a journalistic idiom, boots on the ground. It has …