Why are they called "makeshift" bombs?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

This morning's Washington Post carried two pages of photographs of soldiers killed in Iraq in the past couple of months. They've been doing this for the past two years; this particular item is always buried somewhere inside the first section. I think it should be on the front page, but ..........

There are the names, hometowns, ages, branches of service, ranks, and what they were doing when they died. There are children there, 18- and 19- and 20-year-old kids.

Anyway, the majority of them are listed as having died from injuries sustained from "makeshift" bombs. I find this interesting, since I've always used the word "makeshift" to mean something used as a temporary substitute for the real thing.

So, why is the Post using that word so incorrectly? My first thought is that it's meant to convey the impression that these are sloppy little bombs put together by amateurs who aren't smart enough to know how to use the real thing.

My second thought is that it's an artful kind of misleading, with the implication that these are not bombs built and used by a "regular army" from a "real country," so it's a way of diminishing the insurgents who are setting up these "makeshift" bombs, which are doing such a very professional job of killing our kids.

Am I just being paranoid about the Washington Post and its sloppy use of vocabulary, or does this strike anyone else as suspect?

[Fenris]

1. "Make-shift" in mediaspeak means "not produced by a corporation"

Apparently, arms are only legitimized when they are created in a factory by international armament firms.

Funny how no matter who makes them, they still kill people effectively.

[tinanator]

17. I wonder

somebody is selling them these materials, its not Toys R Us.

[phantom power]

2. Definitely so. Similar to calling them "insurgents",

or "extremists", etc.

Pretty good article about this here:
http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/?uc_full_date=20050412

[meganmonkey]

6. Thanks for the link - that was a good read.

Sometimes Rall rubs me the wrong way but he's pretty damn smart.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

11. Thank you SO much for that!

It's my point, exactly.

Thank you.

Bravo, Ted Rall.................

[Zynx]

3. Makeshift = improvised = non standard

The insurgents basically use anything they can rig up to explode. I don't have a problem with this terminology.

[On the Road]

4. It May be Demeaning to the Insurgency

although that doesn't particularly bother me. I think "makeshift" is an appropriate word for a bomb made in someone's basement rather than in a muntions factory.

[SteppingRazor]

5. No problems here.

Makeshift in this sense essentially means "homemade." No big deal.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. But that's not what "makeshift" means

It means a temporary substitute for something else, like using a rock for a hammer.

In the case of these bombs, how are they a temporary substitute for anything? They're effectively doing the job for which they were intended, so why the incorrect and subversive use of language?

[ArkDem]

12. Most of these explosives are artillery shells that have been

rigged with improvised detonator used instead of the fuse that is set when the shell is fired from an artillery piece.

[Village Idiot]

7. Perhaps they can take the "f" out of "make-shift..."

I am absolutely certain that is what would happen were I ever to find one...

[cheezus]

8. IED?

Improvised explosive device?

I think that's what they call em

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. So, the difference is

"improvised" as opposed to "corporate manufacture"?

Sort of like a bunch of Iraqi nationals, who are now called "insurgents" because they're on their home turf fighting invaders, are sitting around one Saturday night with nothing to do, and one of them has a bright idea.

"I know!" he shouts, jumping up like Bluto in "Animal House," "let's build a bomb!"

Then everyone runs out to the barn, and scrambling to find whatever they can find, they build a bomb and hope for the best?

Improvised, my ass.

I'm just so sick of how these Ratface Squatters In The White House have so corrupted our beautiful language.

[ArkDem]

13. More info

smct.armystudyguide.com/FY-05/Files/093-401-5050.pdf

[rzemanfl]

14. Leftie, real bombs are dropped from a multi-million dollar aircraft

by fundamentalist Christians educated at our expense at the Air Force Academy. Makeshift bombs are made by fundamentalist Muslims and dead-enders from explosives left unguarded when we invaded Iraq and are delivered in the corpse of a dead animal or in some piece of junk. Real bombs cause shock and awe and kill the enemies of freedom. Makeshift bombs kill Americans who are doing their patriotic duty to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq and end the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes makeshift bombs only wound soldiers, in which case they get a free ride to the USA in the dead of night and are covertly taken to a hospital before sunrise. It's really quite simple, isn't it?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

15. See?

I suspected as much.

Might I add, rz, that I love you?

[rzemanfl]

16. How sweet. But a number of women have lived to rue the day

they said that. My present wife, of infinite patience, rues in silence if at all.