November 27, 2006 11:55 AM
Jon Stewart and John Oliver Debate over Iraq "Civil War" Semantics
The situation in Iraq: Is it a "civil war" or a "a minor linguistic flareup between two parties of different terminological points of view"? Jon Stewart and Senior Middle East Correspondent John Oliver debate and agree to "agree to disagree on how they state their agreements."
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Stewart: 3,000 Iraqis died just this month. To argue over what to call it seems like semantic quibbling.Oliver: Semantic quibbling? Oh, well, I wouldn't call it that.
Stewart: What would you call it?
Oliver: A minor linguistic flareup between two parties of different terminological points of view.
Stewart: It's really the same thing.
Oliver: It's "same-ey." For now let's agree to disagree on how we state our agreements. Agreed?
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