Set stunners on phase
I happened to notice in a Boston Herald article a reference to "the combat phase of the war."
Considering that more Americans were killed last month than during any other period in Iraq, you have to wonder what the fuck phase we're in now.
A quick Google News search finds that the preferred wording is "the major combat phase of the war," with at least a couple of publications having enough shame to put scare quotes around "major combat." (AFP goes so far as to say "the so-called major combat phase.")
Most outlets refer to the current situation as the occupation phase, which makes a kind of sense, but not if it implies post-combat. So kudos to those papers that drop the administration-approved wording for the early stages of the war altogether, and call it what it was, the invasion phase.