The word “cruise” by way of the Dutch
“kruis” comes from the root crux: Latin for cross (in the sense of traverse).
In other languages that I know, the words for cross all look or sound sort of like “Cruise”, cruz, kreuz, croce and so on.
I don’t think Arabic, Farsi, or Pashto would use Latin roots, but what are their words for “cross” or “crusader”? I mean wouldn’t it be stupid if we are lobbing what sounds to their ears as “Cross Missiles” at Islamic fundamentalists.
I know it sounds far fetched. But if “crusader” is a problematic term, would “cruise” be?
No, what would be stupid would be to slam a passenger jet into two of their skyscrapers while shrieking “God is great”. It would be stupid to stab an innocent flight attendant in the throat with a box cutter. It would be stupid to think that murdering 6,000 civilians in cold blood will get us tickets to a paradise where nubile young virgins wait on us hand and foot. All these things are stupid. As for the tender sensitivities of the radical Muslims responsible for this, I wouldn’t be too perturbed if allied forces were painting thick coats of pork fat on their cruise missiles before firing.
I don’t give a damn for the tender sensitivities of Islamic fundamentalists either. I was just wondering if “cruise” sounded like “cross” in Arabic…like “crusader”.
After all the United States can’t get at many of those terrorists without support from the moderate Islamic world…as appealing as bombing Afghanestan with lard encrusted missiles may be.
During the Gulf War, Bush Sr. modified the pronounciation of “Saddam” to sound like “Satan”. Americans weren’t terribly fooled. I think your premise basically assumes Arabic speakers are stupid, and I wouldn’t bet on that.
I seem to recall that he pronounced it along the lines of s’DAMN. Whatever the pronounciation, I do recall some discussion of the fact that it was intentional, and meant to offend Sodom. I mean Saddam.
IIRC, the usual pronunciation I was familiar with before the Gulf War was “Saddam” with both “a” sounds like “father” and the emphasis on the second syllable (like “Sodom”, but with the stress on the second rather than first syllable). After the invasion of Kuwait, Bush et al. began pronouncing it “Sadam” with both “a” sounds like “Adam” and the emphasis on the first syllable, so it really was close to “Adam” with an “S” on the front. The change was abrupt enough that I noticed, and I reasoned that it was supposed to evoke “Satan”. I have no more evidence than that…
Did it occur to you that a (so-called) muslim terrorist would not choose a cross as a symbol? The arabic equivalent of crusader would not use cross as a root. Sorry for being so dense if you were trying to be intentionally ironic.
The only similarity is that the WTC/Pentagon attackers were no more following the will of Allah than European crusasers were following the teachings of Christ.
The problem with the term “crusade” is not it’s etomology. References to a cross per se are not offensive, but the fact that the Christians in 1099 used that term for their charge into Islamic territory to recapture Jerusalem. Therefore the word “crusade” has taken on a loaded meaning, harking back to the ostensible religious wars of that time. When Dubya used the word “crusade” recently, his staff tried to do damage control by restating what he meant. He unintentionally used a word that commonly means any heartfelt cause, but in this situation reminded the Muslims of this Christian attack in the name of God.
Man, where did I learn to spell?