[Ads-l] ghost war

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in MW.
'An undeclared war whose extent and intensity are unacknowledged by one or
more of the combatants and thus of little interest to its public'

All 1943-61 from N.    1943 ex. seems to mean 'a war of very low
intensity.'  Earlier exx. concern war games. There are other senses as well.

[1943 _Morning World-Herald_ (Omaha, Neb.) (Sept. 17) 19: Brotherhood of
Arms Is Worn Thin by 'Ghost War'...At least one German soldier of the lot
consigned to the "ghost war" on the Finnish front envied his Italian
colleagues in Axis arms when they surrendered.]

1946 _Kansas City Times_ (Oct. 19) 7: IN A GHOST WAR  Entire Northern
Section of Greece Is Harassed by Mountain Bands ... Greek officials express
the belief the trouble is Soviet inspired.

1955 _Martinsville [Va.] Bulletin_ (Apr. 7)  6-B; 'Frogmen' Playing Vital
Role In 'Ghost War' Between Formosa, Chinese Mainland

1961 _Duluth News-Tribune_ (Dec. 25) 19:  Ghost War Growing Hotter in S.
Viet Nam

2004 Steve Coll _Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan,
and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001_ (N.Y.:
Penguin, 2004) (title).

2026 (Sept. 13)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/graphic-proof-trump-jaw-dropping-124351294.html
 :  But now we are more than six months into a war that nobody, not even
Trump, really wanted. In this week alone, 13 separate incidents in the
Middle East prove this is not the ghost war the president is trying to
convince his MAGA base it is.


JL

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

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