Posted on 11/15/2013 7:12:07 AM PST by BenLurkin
The four Marines killed Wednesday while clearing unexploded ordnance at Camp Pendleton were bomb removal technicians.
The four were killed around 11 a.m. during a routine sweep to make a range safer for future training exercises at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, said a Marine official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. There was no live firing on the range at the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
RIP
Meaning no disrespect to the Marines killed, but the headline is tautological.
“tautological”
Do you know what that word means? I don’t think the headline is rhetoric.
The morons in congress and the press and the general public do not realize that even "routine" military operations are almost always inherently dangerous.
Is handling unexploded bombs ever routine?
Ahhh, you answered my question.
Well, they could have been killed eating dinner had they choked on fish bones. It’s possible to be killed while doing a mundane job. 10,000 ways to die, you know.
He is saying that it is tautological because the fact that they were killed establishes that they were doing something dangerous, so for the headline to say that they were doing something dangerous gives us no additional information. So I think it is a correct use of the word. (Now, one could phrase the headline differently such as: Marines Killed While Doing Job Known to be Dangerous... and that would not be tautological because that would actually be telling us something that we would not know from the mere fact that they were killed.)
Not really. People are killed not doing dangerous things. Just because someone is killed does not automatically characterize their activities at the time. If you were hit my a falling airplane while gardening doesn’t mean you were doing something dangerous.
Spot on. Term was used correctly.
Lots of people die who aren’t doing anything unusually risky when the Fickle Finger of Fate reaches out and taps them.
God bless them. American heroes.
Thank you. Well stated.
If we say, "3 Marines killed in truck accident at base," does that automatically make riding in a truck a dangerous job?
Or, if we were to say "7 Marines killed in midair helicopter crash," does that make flying in an helicopter a dangerous job?
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