The Language of War: A Battle of Words at Guantanamo Bay

• Author: Jennifer Bond
• Pages: 70-84

70 AP PE AL  V OL UM E 10  2005

THE LANGUAGE OF WAR:

A BATTLE OF WORDS AT GUANTANAMO

BAY

Jennifer Bond

Introduction

Over the past 35 months, a plethora of opinions have been

provided on the legality of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Scholars, lawyers, government agencies, NGOs, and even courts

have commented on the application of specific legal rules to the

hundreds of individuals being held in this remote naval base in

Cuba. What has not frequently been recognized, however, is that

Guantanamo Bay is as much about power as it is about legal

interpretation, and that this power is being created and controlled

through the careful manipulation of legal discourse. This paper

will explore two specific linguistic techniques being used by the

U.S. government to legitimize its actions at Guantanamo Bay,

and will argue that in each case legal discourse is being used as a

tool to increase that government’s own position of power.

“The Bush Administration has attempted to turn the forty -eight

square miles of its naval base at Guantanamo Bay into territory

beyond the reach of any law and outside the jurisdiction of any

court. In its treatment of the detainees at Guantanamo, it has

been unwilling to fully apply international humanitarian law (often

called the laws of war), has flouted international human rights