Manipulative Metaphors in Response to Terrorism: semantic and strategic confusion from mixed metaphors

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Also appeared within Cui Bono: Groupthink vs Thinking the Unthinkable? Reframing the suffocating consensus in response to 7/7 (2005, parts 8 and 9), under the titles Learning from metaphors of "war" and "terrorism": semantic confusion and Learning from alternative metaphors framing terrorism?

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Introduction

The importance of metaphor in war has been explored by George Lakoff (Metaphor and War: the metaphor system used to justify war in the Gulf, 1991/2003; Terror, 2001). He makes the strong point that "metaphors can kill" (George Lakoff, Metaphors That Kill: the Nation as Person, and how metaphors frame our perception of war, 19 March 2003).