BROOKE: This is On the Media, I’m Brooke Gladstone.
BOB: And I’m Bob Garfield. In the wake of the Paris attacks, the discussion of America’s fight against ISIS has taken on a new tone of urgency. And greater urgency means greater involvement. And in the U.S. greater involvement has its very own synecdoche:
Boots on the ground -- a vivid demarcation of one kind warfare escalating into something more dangerous and expensive and complicated. But the term turns out to be rather ambiguous -- and most susceptible to the intention of whoever is using it. Kathy Gilsinan, a senior associate editor at the Atlantic covering covers global affairs, says this phrase has been used to blur the definition of war in the public consciousness. Kathy, welcome to OTM.
