Every dictator’s troops.

Our Journalese Definition of “elite” is: “Any third world army unit that has polished boots and can march in step.” We could amend that definition to include, “The main duty of such elite soldiers is to shoot student demonstrators and other unarmed dissidents.” What brings this up is the media’s compulsion to describe the late General Soleimani as head of “the elite Quds Force.” For example, a search of the Boston Globe results in 1,250 hits for “elite Quds Force,” while Google turns up 685,000 references. I could not find any stories of the “elite” Quds being in any heroic or risky battles. Best they can do is murder civilians.

File under: Media as press agents.