I'm not much of a war blogger (because I don't think war should be a debate). But there's this one seemingly neutral, war-related phrase I've been seeing so often that it's now making my antennae go up every time I see it, because I'm suspicious of the sneaky way it's misuse is creeping into the lexicon.

The phrase is "Iraq War veteran."

Nothing political or manipulative about that, and on its face it doesn't seem as if it would be subject to political ownership by one "side" or another -- any more than, say, "World War II veteran."

But remember "Vietnam War veteran"? For many years if not decades, that phrase was a catchword for a variety of social ills such as drug addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, post-traumatic stress, and even crime to the extent that crimes were committed by this gigantic, omnipresent population of untreated misfits. In reality, most Vietnam vets were and are surprisingly normal. But problems get the attention, and few people ever bothered to check whether there was a causal connection between a problem and service in Vietnam. Or even whether the problem person in fact served in Vietnam as alleged.

Google the phrase "Iraq War veteran" and you'll get over 30,000 hits.

While I know this is not scientifically conclusive, I tried adding more words to the phrase to to search for correlations with various topics of interest.

The latter association interested me, and I discovered that several Iraq War veterans have acheived quasi-celebrity status for anti-war activism:

34,000 hits for Camilio Mejia (praised here by famed Vietnam era antiwar activist Daniel Ellsberg;Black Five has another view entirely....)

29,000 hits for Kevin Benderman.

10,000 links to Aidan Delgado (teller of wildly grotesque but unverified, highly questionable atrocity stories).

This is getting off track, and I think that's enough about celebrity activists I'd rather not have ever heard of.

Back to "Iraq war veteran" Google associations. I also found:

Not wanting to limit my search with things which would be considered overly negative, I also tried Googling a couple of words many would associate with "positive" stereotypes (perhaps what many veterans might want associated with themselves) but came up a bit short:

I know. It's a bit silly, but my concerns relate to negative stereotyping, so why not at least make a stab at a search for the other side. (Hey, at least I'm not Googling for "Iraq war veterans" Mom "the flag" and "Apple pie." Oh, what the hell! I tried them together, and I got six.)

Anyway, I know this isn't scientific, but if you searched only on the Internet, you'd think that anyone who fought in this war was either an activist against it, or someone needing professional care of some sort. This makes me wonder out loud (and rhetorically) whether the Internet reflects actual reality, or activists' reality. I mean, in the last election the troops -- and military veterans -- voted overwhelmingly for Bush (and, presumably, for the war). And that was despite the fact that Bush insulted them by serving up plastic Thanksgiving turkeys.

Can a phrase like "Iraq War veteran" be owned by anyone? Is it a proprietary thing destined to occupy a niche like "Vietnam War Veteran"? Of might this be tied to the ultimate fate of the war itself?

I don't know, but I hate it when ordinary words become insider code language.

(I'm almost tempted to say that it goes against my values, but I won't dare....)