Translating Force

A frequent rationale used by politicians to justify war plans is that violence is the only option. In recent years, the preferred way to phrase this is to claim that "the only language [enemy leader name] understands is force." With the current assault on Yugoslavia, I thought that we might see this line appearing frequently. I was right.

Using Lexis-Nexis, a huge database of news articles, I did a search for various permutations of this phrase in the 90 days prior to March 29. In those three months, this family of phrases came up 85 times in 52 different news outlets (however, nine of these "news reports" were from US government news services, so they don't exactly count). Nearly all of these referred to Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs. Two referred to "terrorists" in Chechnya, one to Saddam Hussein, and one to "Arabs." This focus and repetition is impressive. The press claimed that Milosevic understood only force, in those specific terms, 72 times in 90 days.

The sentiment came up in many different phrasings:

-"force is the only language he appears to understand" -"diplomats have always said the only thing Slobodan Milosevic understands is force" -"we have calculated that military force is the only language that Milosevic understands." -"NATO decided to communicate with Milosevic in the only language he understands--violent force." -"if force is the only language which President Milosevic understands then we shall use force." -"the only language this regime understands is the language of force." -"the only thing that the Serbs understand is force." -"[he] understands only one thing, and that's the use of force." -"the truculent Mr. Milosevic is a man who understands only force." -"Serbian authorities understand the language of force, only." -"Milosevic understands force only when it is used."

This phrase must be powerful, or it would not be used so often. It subtly states several messages simultaneously, all of which serve the pro-war position.

The first version, "the only language he understands is force" is slightly disturbing, since it claims that violence is a type of language ("I speak French, Portuguese, and kidney punches"). There is a subtle superiority here: our enemy is monolingual (he only speaks force), while we are multilingual (we speak reason, force, and perhaps several other "languages"). The easiest means of communication is for us to speak the enemy's language, rather than wait for him to learn ours. So the metaphor implies that "we" are smarter (we speak more languages), and that our "native tongue" is more civilized than his (force is nearly always seen as uncivilized). And a small parallel can be made to US culture, in which there seems to be a pervasive belief that somehow English is a better language than other languages, i.e. the whole "English as the National Language" movement.

But the metaphor of force as language is not used universally. Some of them mention the "thing" that Milosevic understands. But every version of the phrase uses "only," "understand," and "force" (although not always in that order).

The phrase implies that there is only one possible course of action, while simultaneously implying that all other forms of action have been tried. If the person in question only understands force, what other options do you have? Your attempts to ask, bribe, or cajole will fail if he does not understand them. Force is the only hope of success. And in order to know that a person only understands force, you theoretically must have tried every other method of communication to reach that person. Making this statement is much easier than actually trying every other peaceful means possible.

Another clever aspect of the rhetoric is how it equates "he did not accept the proposals we offered" with "he does not understand diplomacy." In the case of Milosevic, I have read reports that NATO offers like "you must leave Kosovo and gain nothing in return" did not appeal; had NATO offered something like "leave Kosovo and we will give you lots of money," or some such deal, this would have been more persuasive to Milosevic (maybe he would have "understood" that). But the "only understands force" metaphor does not allow that as a valid interpretation. Because he did not like any of the outcomes if he accepted any of NATO's offered peace plans, says the metaphor, Milosevic did not understand them (and further offers would likewise not be understood). It is much simpler to explain the choice for war this way than to go into detail. If Madeleine Albright made statements like "the Serbs refuse to leave Kosovo unless we give them money, so we must wage war on them," she would have to explain why NATO is not willing to follow up on this potential peaceful settlement (although I imagine they'd trot out the "appeasement doesn't work" excuse). The peace process could become open to public debate, which could possibly tie the government's hands. And Lord knows we don't want that.

Also, another subtle aspect of the rhetoric, one that should be taken less literally, is an implicit insult, or dehumanization of the target. Claims that the enemy does not understand anything but force shows that he does not understand reason. One take is that the speaker calls the enemy dumb and incapable of understanding. Or it assigns him to a more animal-like role; all humans understand reason, but the enemy cannot. And while Slobodan Milosevic's policy is brutal to the point of being "bestial," he is not a beast. He is a human, with reason, who is, like all humans, making decisions based upon his intellect, emotions, and beliefs. To end the Kosovo conflict, all its actors should be seen as the complex beings that they are, otherwise we run the risk of simplistic solutions and disastrous outcomes.

Perhaps the phrase can be better translated thus: "He does not understand that we will not make an offer that he will like, and when he refuses our offers, we will bomb him." As is often the case, one's words say more about the speaker than the things they are describing. I'd say that in this case, we learn that those who say "he understands only force" mean "I understand only obedience."