Euphemisms from iraq war

Question

For an article I'm writing, does anybody know who coined these expressions?A)pre-emptive self-defenseB)weapons of mass deception

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]For an article I'm writing, does anybody know who coined these expressions? A)pre-emptive self-defense[/nq]
You have at least four strings to search on, combinations of preemptive vs. pre-emptive, and defense vs. defence. I'm not sure whether the hyphen after self is firm.
Under "Preemptive self-defence" the earliest post that Google Advanced Group Search (the Usenet archives) gives is

Subject: Re: What About Sodom and Gomorrah???
Newsgroups: misc.activism.militia
Date: 1997/03/17
[nq:1]B)weapons of mass deception[/nq]
The earliest post in the Usenet archives using the phrase is dated 1998.

Subject: Clinton Parady
Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.congress
Date: 1998/12/17
Global replacements and a few simple edits, a parady evolves.

Republican address to the congress on the Clinton
affair.
(big snip)
And mark my words, he will develop weapons of
mass deception. He will deploy them, and he will
use them.
It's not a euphemism, of course. It's a joke, a parody, a play on words. I've also heard "weapons of mass distraction" Tony Blair even said that in public just a day or two ago, and quickly corrected himself. That one shows up in Google Groups much more recently 7 Oct 2002.

Best wishes - Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]For an article I'm writing, does anybody know who coined these expressions?[/nq]
(snip)
[nq:2]B)weapons of mass deception[/nq]
I see posts using "...distraction" back to Apr 1997, mostly in reference to the HBO movie of the same name (screenplay by Larry Gelbart):

http://imdb.com/title/tt0120487/

Euphemisms from iraq war

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