What comes to your mind when you hear the word, “diplomat”? Tactful negotiation? What clothes does a diplomat wear? A suit? Let me ask you: does this person look like a diplomat to you?
… Or does he look like a soldier? Does he look like a person who is here to negotiate, or to kill you?
The image on the left is from the catalog of “Diplomat Tactical,” a line of military clothing. I’m honestly just confused. I think of the military as what happens when diplomacy fails, but here, the word is being explicitly associated with the use of lethal force. Even the product’s logo, a straight line shooting into the center of a bulls-eye, reinforces this association.
The government and the military use euphemistic terminology to disguise their actions from outsiders. Kidnapping and torture becomes “rendition”. Torture becomes “intensive interrogation.” Now, are we going to explicilty endorse the idea that military force is our “diplomacy”?
