"boots on the ground"

[Jonathan Lighter]

If I hear this phrase again I'm going to scream. In fact, I might as well
do it now and get it over with.

Ah, back to normal. Jake Tapper and his guests managed to say "boots on the
ground" *eight* times in less than two minutes, which averages out to one
boot roughly every seven seconds.

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/09/24/roundtable-more-u-s-ground-troops-likely/

(Read the text for the three additional "boots on the ground.")

Plus. OED actually wants to link the "boot" in "boots on the ground" with
def. 1d, namely "A recruit at a boot camp."  So what these people  are
"really" talking about, I mean etymologically, is "untrained recruits on
the ground."   Make sense? It does to somebody.

The service paper "Stars and Stripes" adds that "boots on the ground" is
"slang."   How would that be?

JL



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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