A few months ago, I heard a local car salesman's TV commercial touting the "Mother of All Car Sales!" and another used car dealership in Ohio got into trouble for advertising a car sales "jihad".
The "mother of" formulation, if you remember, is from Saddam's promise of a "Mother of All Battles" if the US attacked his forces. Since then, I have been keeping track of these little labels and spin-words, especially as they've started to become popular culture references. Cernig's post about how "terrorists" are now "concerned local nationals" prompts me to post my list thus far, and I would appreciate your contributions to it. Maybe we can make it all into a wiki or crossword:
45-minutes
Abu Ghraib
Al-Qaeda
aluminium tubes
Axis of Evil
baby incubators
Baker Group
beheading
cakewalk
cabal
Chalabi
cherry-pick
Clash of Civilizations
clean bill
collateral damage
concerned local nationals
contractors
cut-and-run
dead-enders
defeatocrats
detainee
Dixie Chicks
dodgy dossier
EFP
enemy combatants
excess deaths
extraordinary rendition
Fahrenheit 9/11
firebrand cleric
freedom fries
gated communities
Gitmo
Glaspie, April
Global War on Terror
Green Zone
Ground Zero
Halliburton
Homeland Security
IED
intelligence failure
Iraq Study Group
Islamo-fascist
Long War
Lynch, Jessica
mass abductions
milestones
Miller, Judith
mission accomplished
Mother of all ...
mushroom cloud
NeoCon
Niger
One-Percent Doctrine
Orange Alert
OSP
Palmegate
partition
Patriot Act
Patriot missile
phased withdrawal
Scud
sexed-up
shock and awe
Slam Dunk
stay the course
stovepipe
Sunni Triangle
Surge
termination of hostilities
throwing flowers
tipping-point
turning the corner
unknown unknowns
victory
warrantless eavesdropping
water boarding
worse-than-Hitler
white phosphorus
WMD
WTC Widows
yellowcake
Zionist lobby
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